I'll Wait For You
by Hazelmist
Summary: Grace Adams just wants to live, but Hogwarts' Most Eligible Bachelor, the war, and a crazed serial killer keep getting in the way. SBOC LJ AF RLOC. Sequel to I'll Fight For You.
1. Prologue

**I'll Wait For You**

**By Hazelmist**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OC's maybe. Everything else belongs to the lovely author of Harry Potter. **

**Summary: Grace Adams just wants to live, but Sirius Black, the war, and a serial killer keep getting in her way. SBOC LJ AF RLOC. Sequel to I'll Fight For You. **

**WARNING! This is a sequel/spin off. You should read my Lily/James story **_**I'll Fight For You**_** first. Though it's not entirely necessary. I'll sum up the prequel real quick. SUMMARY: In **_**I'll Fight For You**_** Lily Potter is about to die and flashes back to the start of her Sixth Year. At the start of her Sixth Year, Lily's best friend Grace Adams and her cousin James Potter come to take Lily home with them. Grace's parents are murdered while they're there and Lily finds herself comforting James. Death Eaters attack. James takes her back to stay with his family and they grow closer as they prepare for and attend the funeral. Grace's mother isn't dead. Lily goes to stay with the Potters again for Christmas and Grace drags them on a hunt through the family mausoleum for her mother's body. Death Eaters attack at the Ministry Yule Ball and another friend, Tiffany's, father is murdered. Lily and James are entrusted with the care of Grace's mother who has been disguised and has a deadly secret that she can't remember. Lily and Grace are attacked on the train. Lily nearly dies. Lily turns James down one too many times. James moves on to comfort Tiffany. Lily finds a boyfriend in Rohan Corner, who saved her life. Lily learns that the Death Eaters are after a powerful weapon that only Hope, Grace's mother knows the location of, except that she obliviated herself. A skirmish with the Slytherins turns deadly as Hope's identity is revealed and a young Death Eater, Wilkes, tries to kill her. Grace jumps in front of the curse. Hope bargains for Grace's life and promises to find the weapon for them. Lily and her friends put the clues together and head back to the mausoleum to find the buried weapon but thanks to a spying device and their traitorous roommate McLaggen, the Death Eaters are a half step ahead of them. They fight their way through the Potter house, but Lily's friend Ophelia Lovegood is possessed and murders Hope. Lily becomes the new wielder of the weapon and Voldemort wants to use her to get to the power. Lily's boyfriend Rohan is tortured and killed and Lily narrowly stops Voldemort from murdering Grace as well. With the help of James, Lily reaches the weapon, takes care of the Death Eaters, saves her friends and survives the collapse of the mausoleum. After a misunderstanding and a long wait Grace comes out of her coma and Lily and James finally get together. The story ends here with a quick glimpse of their Seventh Year (Grace and Sirius finally make out and James, Lily and the others wonder where they will be in the future years) as the flashback is finished and Lily Potter dies knowing that her son will live because she loves him. **

**Author's Note: I know I said no sequel, and this is more of a spin off because it's told in 3****rd**** person point of view, and will mostly be Grace's perspective. I do not plan for it to be very long. The Prologue is from the summer before their first year with some surprise appearances, but the first chapter will take place in their Seventh Year, a year after Gracie was almost killed and Lily went down into the mausoleum to get the weapon etc.**

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

July 1970

Diagon Alley was hot and muggy. The heat bore down upon the witches and wizards that crowded the narrow street, making their movements sluggish and their tempers short and irritable. Cooling charms were a tricky business and there was only so much that they could do to alleviate the humidity and the tension it created. The weather wasn't the only thing weighing them down…

All of the warning signs were there – a violent storm was brewing and it was coming their way. It would be many more years before the rest of the wizarding world felt the full effects of this storm and were forced to open their eyes to the dark hurricane that had been silently gathering strength beneath their very noses; but by then it would be too late. By then it would be an unstoppable force, destroying and sucking up everything in its path, but on that hot day in July of 1970, the majority of the wizarding world was blissfully unaware of the death and destruction that the future had in store for them.

Fortunately, the two dark haired children wearing matching Puddlemere United t-shirts were among this population. If they had been privy to what the future had in store for them, perhaps they would have stayed like that, slumbering in the unbearable heat, avoiding the fated meeting that awaited them and would trigger the chain of events that would tear the wizarding world apart. But even at the tender age of eleven, they were already a part of something larger than themselves.

"Blimey, it's so bloody warm out," eleven year old James Potter complained, pushing his hair back from his sweaty forehead. He rested his skinny arms on the table outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor, upsetting the half eaten bowl of ice cream. It tipped over and the melted chocolate dribbled out; slowly dripping off the table and into his cousin's lap. She didn't notice.

"Do you think they forgot about us?" Grace Adams asked, oblivious to the chocolate stain on her favorite t-shirt. She had her chin propped up in her hand and her blue eyes locked on something in the distance.

"Who?" James rubbed his eyes before lazily picking up his glasses and replacing them on his head.

"My parents, you moron," Grace said, rolling her eyes. "They were supposed to be back from their meeting hours ago."

"Hopefully, then I can guilt trip Dad into buying me that Silver Arrow!"

Normally the mention of anything Quidditch related would cause Gracie to light up like a firecracker, but today she was unusually pensive. Something was bothering her and it annoyed her that she couldn't figure out what that was.

"Come on, Gracie, let's go back and have another look at the Silver Arrow."

"All right," Grace sighed, rising to her feet. James threw some sickles on the table and they walked out into the unbearable heat.

"I wish first years could have brooms," James whined, as they moved through the crowd. "Maybe Gryffindor will make an exception!"

"What makes you think you think you'll be in Gryffindor?" Grace teased him. "I think you'd make a perfectly good Hufflepuff." James attempted to shove her into a barrel of beetle's eyes, but Gracie dodged out of the way.

"We were born to be Gryffindors and we'll die Gryffindors!" James dramatically struck a pose, pulling out an imaginary sword. Grace hastily glanced around to make sure the vendor wasn't watching and then thrust her hand into a barrel of unicorn horns. She pulled out a long one, wielding it as if it were a real sword. At least it trumped James's non-existent sword.

"Prove it," she urged him, dancing on the balls of her feet. "Prove your Gryffindor worth." James grinned and hastily upgraded the imaginary sword with a unicorn horn retrieved from the same barrel.

"Loser is a Hufflepuff," James said, sallying forth for the first thrust. Grace ducked and James leaped back before she could make her move. They circled each other closely, never taking their eyes off one another so that they were oblivious to their audience. Grace darted forward for another strike, which James expertly blocked with a parry of his own. The sound of the two unicorn horns clashing drew the attention of the shopkeeper from the customer he had been attending too.

"Hey! No touch those!"

But the two children were so caught up in their mock sword fight that they were ignorant of the shopkeepers threats. They ducked, dodged, lunged, and struck at each other; all the while dancing around each other with a grace that caused shoppers around them to pause to watch. Among the crowd were two young boys, and a pretty red haired girl. It was the girl that proved to be James's downfall.

He had managed to hit Grace so hard that she lost her balance. She stumbled back, giving him the opening that he needed. But at that moment when James should've claimed his victory, he was distracted by a pair of green eyes. James didn't understand why the small girl caught his attention. After all, he was only eleven, but there was something about the little red head with the amused green eyes that made him pause to take in the small smile that brightened her face.

Grace knocked him down and he dropped his weapon. It shattered upon impact and the rest of the world flooded in on them.

"YOU PAY FOR THAT! YOU PAY!" Grace was startled by the sight of the heavyset wizard barreling toward them. The second sword fell and broke alongside James's. She glanced at James, who took one look at the outrageous price for unicorn horns and got to his feet. They didn't have any more money on them, leaving them with only one option.

"Run!" he hissed, snatching at her sleeve. Grace shot off like a bludger, zig-zagging through the crowd and smashing into people. James was stealthier, weaving between shoppers with the elusiveness of a snitch. They separated without even realizing it, splitting off in to two opposite directions as the shop keeper started firing sparks close behind them. Grace ran as fast as her legs would carry her, but she couldn't get the people to move out of her way fast enough. The shop keeper's voice was getting louder and closer, and James had vanished. Grace was desperate for an out, so when someone forcefully grabbed her arm, taking her out of the shop keeper's line of vision; she let them.

"Come with me!"

Grace didn't like the tight grip that the boy had on her arm, but the shopkeeper's threats were in her ears and the crowd was starting to turn on her. When the boy tugged her behind a boarded up shop and down another alleyway, Grace followed eagerly. The alleyway was dark and dirty but it narrowed at the end, making it near impossible for the fat shop keeper to come after her even if he had noticed the sudden detour they'd taken. The space was so tight that Grace tried to pull her arm out from the boy's grasp but he held on, dragging her through behind him at an awkward painful angle. Her elbow scraped up against the dirty brick wall.

"Ow, that hurt!" Grace said, wrenching her arm out of his grasp as they stepped out on to the street. In addition to the scrape on her elbow, his nails had left deep crescent shaped marks on her arm.

"Sorry." The boy didn't look very apologetic, in fact he was smiling. Grace didn't like the way he smiled at her. It made her uncomfortable.

"Where are we?" Grace asked, looking away from the boy's creepy smile. They were back on the street, but Gracie was positive that they weren't in Diagon Alley anymore. It felt different, like the air itself was dirtier. All of the color that was in Diagon Alley seemed to have drained out of this place. Though the sun still beat down upon them it was darker here and the shadows themselves seemed to take on corporeal forms. For a moment she wondered if she had stepped into muggle London, but there were too many wizards and witches walking around.

"You've never been to Knockturn Alley?" The boy gaped at her.

"This is Knockturn Alley?"

The boy giggled in response to her incredulous question and Grace decided that she hated his childish giggle even more than she disliked his creepy smile. It set her nerves on edge. There was something off about the way he smiled and laughed at things. There was something off about everything here, Grace observed as they started walking again. She shuddered at the look the toothless wizard across the street was giving her.

"Are you scared?" the boy asked gleefully. He was shorter than her, but stockier than James. Grace suspected that he was about the same age as her, though it was hard to tell when he kept giggling like her six year old brother.

"No," Grace insisted, her eyes flicking back to the creeper across the street.

"I think you are." His hand gripped her shoulder so suddenly and his voice was so close to her ear that Gracie jumped. The boy giggled again, drawing the eyes of many more of the dodgy patrons. Grace was angry that he was making fun of her and calling so much attention to her, so she did what any child would do and pushed him.

He tripped over a crate of something that looked liked bones and fell face first into a display of giant black spiders. Grace laughed at him, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth to smother the sound. His arms flailed wildly as he tried to clean off his face of the crawling insects that were rushing him, creating a comical sight.

"Sorry," Grace pretended to apologize, as she moved to help him up. He took a swing at her, hitting her with a shocking amount of force, and she staggered back a step. He got to his feet without her help, throwing a handful of spiders at her. Grace wrinkled her nose and brushed them aside. When she looked up again, the boy was on her and had a hand locked around her forearm. There was no sign of the childish amusement that had been in his mouth and face earlier. His grey eyes were cold as marched her down the street.

"Hey! Let go of my arm!" Grace tried to pull her arm free, but the boy was surprisingly strong.

"Do you know what my uncle's going to do to you when I turn you in for stealing from him?" he breathed in her ear. Grace stopped struggling, feeling the color drain out of her face. "Unicorn horns are incredibly rare and very expensive. The theft of two such items just might warrant a stay in Azkaban."

"You're lying!" she spat.

"Perhaps," the boy shrugged, "But you don't know that, do you?"

He was right of course. Grace had no idea what the punishment for theft was for she had never had reason to care.

"It was an accident," she protested, feeling a cold sweat start to break out on her brow.

"I know, Grace, I know," he said, soothingly. Grace was perplexed by his behavior. She couldn't figure out what he was trying to do or where he was taking her.

"If you were just going to turn me in anyway, why'd you bother helping me escape?" she asked, glancing at his face.

"I'm not going to turn you in," he reassured her in that chilling voice that was anything but assuring. She had to get away from him but she wanted to wait until he led her out of Knockturn Alley. Too many people were looking at them and helping her seemed to be the last thing that they would do. Grace's mind raced as she stared hard at a skull and a snake that had been painted onto the side of a brick shop front. Something had been scrawled beneath it but the words dripped and shimmered, making it illegible.

"Girls like you don't belong in Azkaban," he continued, walking them directly into the brick wall with the spray painted skull. Grace flinched away, but the boy shoved her hard. She tripped forward, but instead of smashing her head, her hands slid right through the graffiti and the wall disappeared altogether. Grace blinked, finding herself suddenly standing in a dark room.

"But what you did _Gracie_ was very bad and I'll have to punish you."

Grace's head swung around so fast that she got whip lash. She dug her heels into the floor, forcing them both to a stand still.

"How do you know my name?" she asked, widening her eyes.

The boy smiled, it was hard to make out his face in the shadows but Grace was sure that he could see her heart threatening to beat right out of her chest, and it pleased him immensely.

"_Gracie_," he said again, rolling the name over his tongue as if he were savoring each syllable. "Little Gracie Adams, I know everything about you and your family, but you have no idea who I am, do you?" he asked, scrutinizing her.

Grace's eyes darted desperately around the room but it was too dark. His eyes were burning into her with an intensity that frightened her.

"Where are Hope and Mark now?" he asked, swinging her around to face him. His fingernails clawed into her forearms but Grace couldn't feel the pain. Her entire body had gone rigid and numb. He or someone else had immobilized her.

"Why are you doing this?" Grace asked thickly from between lips that could barely move. It was him. She was almost sure of it. There had been a few times when her mother or father had immobilized her in order to punish her or keep her out of harm's way, but this was different. The magic was more uncontrolled, like that time when James had thrown her into a wall without touching her because she startled him. Unlike most magical children, he knew exactly what he was doing to her. She could sense it and she couldn't explain how or why.

"I'm only giving you what you deserve," he whispered, holding her closer to him. "You see, Gracie, your mother killed mine."

"Liar!" Grace spat out, but it was hard when he lips were so cold and unfeeling. An image of her mother – her beautiful, kind, smiling, gentle mother - flooded her mind, and Grace tried to shake her head.

"And your father put my father away in Azkaban, leaving me all alone."

"You're wrong," Grace said in slurred speech, refusing to believe that her mother could kill anyone or that her father could orphan a child like that. She thought of her father's bear hugs that swept her off her feet and the way her mother sat beside her, stroking her hair until she fell asleep. They wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Your parents destroyed my family, Gracie; and now I'm going to destroy theirs, starting with you," he sighed, smiling. He brushed back the hair from her forehead almost like the way that her mother did, but his fingers were cold as ice. Grace tried to fight the numbness, but her body was as rigid as a board. There was one part of her body that she could still move though. She went with the momentum, letting her body sway toward his. She was taller than him but her head dropped onto his shoulder. He chuckled, knotting his fingers into her hair.

"If you're good I might've even let you lose consciousness first…" he crooned in her ear.

Grace finally pried her jaw open and bit down on his throat hard. He swore, but Grace had managed to seize a sensitive and good sized chunk of skin between her teeth and refused to let go. He pulled at her hair, yanking her head back. But his control had slipped and Grace felt some of the feeling flood back into her limbs. It was painful, like pins and needles, after a limb has fallen asleep and has finally woken up, but Grace managed to lift her heavy arms high enough to sink her nails into his face. Grace's nails scratched and gauged at his eyes, even as Wilkes pulled at her hair so hard that her neck was threatening to snap.

"Stop!"

Grace felt her arms growing heavy, too heavy to hold up. The already dark room had taken on a cloudy appearance. The pain in her neck was unbearable. Grace let her arms drop, hoping that her body would fall too before her neck snapped off.

"You're going to kill her! STOP!"

Just before her eyes slid shut, she saw a dark blur of movement just over the boy's shoulder. Something heavy struck her, as she fell. Her back hit the floor, the boy falling on top of her. His eyes were closed now, his face slack. His fingers had relaxed their grip in his loss of consciousness, and now someone was pushing him off of her. She could breathe and move again.

"You okay?" a new voice; a new pair of eyes, dark but not empty. His hand was open and outstretched to her, offering her a hand up. It was hard to make him out, especially when his hair and eyes seemed as dark as the room they were in. Grace ignored the hand and struggled to get to her feet. She would never trust strangers again.

"I'm fine," she insisted when he tried to help her up. "I'm FINE."

"You're not fine," the boy said, following her movements worriedly with his eyes. They were brown. "He was-"

"It was just a fight," Grace said, wincing as she rubbed at her neck. She glanced down at the boy lying face first on the floor. An over turned chair with one of its legs splintered and broken, rested beside him. Grace looked up at the other boy who had obviously knocked him out with the chair. In the shadows she could've easily mistaken him for James except he wasn't wearing glasses and his eyes were so much darker and larger.

"Let's get you back to Diagon Alley," he said, reaching for her arm. Even though he had just saved her, Grace jerked back, snarling, "Don't touch me." The boy stepped back, holding up his hands before him, but hurt and anger flashed across his face.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he reassured her.

"He told me the same thing," Grace blurted out, pointing a finger at the boy lying unconscious on the ground. The boy followed her gaze, and his fists clenched as he glared down at the figure. His eyes flicked back to her, filled with concern and Grace immediately wished she hadn't said anything.

"Did he –"

"It was just a fight," she lied again, looking away before her face could betray anything.

"Look," the boy said. "I know that you're lost. James is looking for you."

Grace's eyes snapped back to the boy.

"You know James?"

"Er – not really – we sort of just met – but that's beside the point. I helped James search Diagon Alley for you and when we couldn't find you, I told him I'd try Knockturn Alley. If you'll just follow me, I can take you back to him," he offered. Grace stared at him, wondering if she could trust him. But he did know James. Then again, the other boy had claimed that he'd known all about her family too.

"Please, just come with me," he pleaded with her, looking at her imploringly with those brown eyes. "All you have to do is stay close and follow me. I promise I won't lay a hand on you, I'm just going to lead you back to Diagon Alley, and if I'm lying –" -he reached down and broke off the splintered chair leg – "You can stab me in the back with this." He held the weapon out to her. Grace took it from, stared at it for a moment, and then at the boy before her. She let it drop to the floor.

"I don't need that to beat the crap out of you if you're lying," she warned him, but she was grinning. Despite everything that had happened, she knew that she was going to like this kid.

"I don't doubt it," the boy said smiling at her over his shoulder as he led the way out. "Just please make sure that you're one hundred percent certain that I'm lying before you decide to make me cry like a girl in public."

Grace laughed as she followed him into the sunlight and back into Diagon Alley.

"Who are you anyway?" Gracie asked as they stood there blinking in the sudden onslaught of light.

"I'm Sirius Black," the boy said, flashing her a perfect grin.

"Black?" Grace frowned. "As in-"

"Yea, I'm part of _that_ family," he said, kicking at the ground.

Grace knew what kind of reputation that the Blacks had. They valued pureblood over everything else and every single one of them had been in Slytherin. Still, she couldn't help but like this Sirius, especially after he just struck some kid over the head for her with a chair, and led her back to Diagon Alley after agreeing that she could beat the crap out of him if she wanted to.

"Sirius?" She grasped his wrist, causing him to look over at her. They were the same height.

"Do you think you could maybe keep all of this a secret? I don't want anyone to know that I – I lost a fight," she lied, dropping her eyes.

"Grace," Sirius began hesitantly, "I don't think –"

"Please, Sirius, please don't tell anyone," she begged him softly. She let her hand slide from his wrist to his fingers, pinning it to the shop front they were leaning against. Her fingers threaded through his as unconsciously as they done so many times before with Christopher and James, but Sirius wasn't used to being touched like that. His face turned bright red and he pulled his hand out from underneath hers.

"Sirius?"

"All right," Sirius said rubbing vigorously at his mysteriously flushed neck. "It'll be our little secret," he agreed reluctantly."But Grace –"

"GRACIEEEEE!" a whirlwind of brown curls and bright colors tackled Grace, nearly knocking her flat on her back. Grace laughed when she recognized the little boy that had thrown himself at her. She ruffled her little brother's hair as James and her parents quickly followed.

"Did you miss me, Chrissy?" she asked, holding her brother at arm's length.

"No, but Mum said that if I found you, she'd get me another ice cream," Christopher said smugly. "I found her!" he said holding up her arm, triumphantly. "I found her!"

James shook his head, grinning at her, before Sirius tapped him on the shoulder. The two boys bent their heads together as they spoke, as if they had been friends forever.

"Thank Merlin, you're all right! Christopher, stop pestering your sister!" Her mother pulled Christopher out of the way and her father swept her up into a tight embrace, sweeping her right up off the ground.

"Daddy!" Grace protested, a little embarrassed. Her father reluctantly set her back down on the ground, but he kept his arms around her. He crouched down so that they were on eye level. His face was etched with the relief he felt, but his body was still tense and his blue eyes guarded.

"Gracie, we were so worried. What happened?"

"I wound up in Knockturn Alley."

Her father swore softly under his breath, pulling her into another tight embrace.

"You're lucky that boy found you."

"Yea," Grace said, nodding and glancing in Sirius's direction, but she was thinking of another boy. She leaned into her father's chest, putting her lips close to his ear.

"Daddy," she whispered. "Did Mummy ever kill anyone?"

Her father froze. His eyes moved past her to the dark haired boy and then flitted to his wife who was trying unsuccessfully to talk their energetic six year old out of a second ice cream. She had one hand on her hip and the other held Christopher's sticky hand in hers. She looked relaxed but he knew her hand was on the spot where she kept her wand hidden. Her eyes met his and stopped, her smiling mouth turning down in a frown and her eyes darting to Gracie with concern.

"Daddy?" Grace prodded him gently.

"Who told you that?" Mark Adams asked his daughter in a strained whisper, his eyes never leaving his wife's.

"Oh – er – just someone I overheard in Knockturn Alley," Grace said, fidgeting. Mark knew there was something she wasn't telling him, but he didn't press. "But she didn't kill anyone, right?" Grace asked anxiously, twisting her head around so that they were eye to eye.

"No, Gracie," Mark Adams told his daughter. "Mummy didn't kill anyone."

It was the only time he ever lied to his daughter.

* * *

That night in Azkaban Aaron Wilkes was given the Dementor's kiss, officially orphaning his ten year old son Evan Wilkes. Evan did not cry. He barred himself in his room, ignoring the orders of his grandparents to come out and the pleas of the house elf that brought him food.

He realized now that he had made a mistake attacking Grace Adams in Knockturn Alley. He was lucky that the hard headed girl had no idea who he was and had decided to keep her mouth shut. No, he decided, it wouldn't do to attack her again or any of her family members. He'd have to wait until the time was right.

And so he waited…

* * *

**A/N: So… What do you think? I know James, Sirius, and Lily technically met on the train in the flashback in DH but since I started writing IFY before DH and did not include the Lily/Snape friendship, I'm taking artistic liberties with this one as well. The next chapter will jump to their Seventh Year and there will be loads of Gracie/Sirius and perhaps some Lily/James. I've got about 2 more chapters written but I'm still tweaking them. I might change the summary too. **


	2. Six Years Later

**I'll Wait For You**

**By Hazelmist**

**Summary: This is a sequel/spin off of my Lily and James story I'll Fight For You but it's going to focus more on Grace Adams and her relationship with Sirius Black. I highly recommend you read I'll Fight For You first or you'll be very confused. If you want a summary, look at the top of the prologue chapter. In the prologue we see two very different first encounters between Grace and Sirius and Grace and Evan Wilkes in Diagon Alley before they start their first year (as well as glimpses of the Adams, Lily and James). Grace and James upset a shopkeeper, get separated and Grace gets dragged off by Evan Wilkes to Knockturn Alley. He corners her and tells her that her mother murdered his and put his father in Azkaban and that he's going to make her pay for that, but Sirius arrives in time to rescue her and bring her back to Diagon Alley to her family. Grace asks her father if it's true and he says it's not but the chapter ends with Evan Wilkes receiving the news that his father has been executed in Azkaban and him vowing revenge. This chapter connects to many things that were mentioned in the prologue but takes place roughly six years later when they are seventh years on their winter break. **

**Author's Note: Sorry my computer got a virus and I proceeded to fix it by getting the same virus on my sister's laptop as well. She was not pleased and I had to shell out a lot of money to get them both fixed. Yeah, I'm a real computer genius. Hope you enjoy this!**

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**Chapter One: Six Years Later**

**December 30, 1976**

_And so he waited…_

It had been six long years since their first encounter in Diagon Alley but never a day went by without him thinking about her. Standing by the window with his hands clasped behind his back, he gazed at the thick clouds gathering on the horizon. There was a storm coming, all one had to do now was wait for it. He took a deep breath, but it didn't slow his beating hard or stop his hands from trembling. _Soon_, he told himself, _soon she would be his_. But he couldn't calm down and the reassurances were all empty promises that had been building since the first day their eyes met. At that moment he realized that their fates were entwined and in the last year the bond between them had only grown painfully stronger. He drew in another breath and a part of him was aware of her taking a breath as well. He was so in tune with her that it both scared and intoxicated him. He'd never felt this way before.

He'd never felt _anything_.

A crack appeared in the window in front of him, splintering out like a spider web. With a touch he could shatter it and all of the windows in a twenty-mile radius, but instead he closed his eyes, slowly reeling the magic back in. When he opened his eyes the pane of glass was smooth and unblemished, more perfect than it had been before. He ran his finger over the glass, admiring his work.

He'd promised them that he would wait, but he knew that he couldn't control himself much longer.

But then again, maybe he didn't have to wait…

A sudden smile split his face as a plan began to form in his mind. _Yes_, he decided_, tomorrow I'll see her again._

* * *

"I can't wait to see you all again."

Seventeen-year old Grace Adams smiled in spite of herself and shook her head. Lily Evans had been her best mate for the past six years and she adored her, but honestly this was borderline obsession. She'd just left a week ago to visit her muggle family for the first time in almost two years and already she was begging to come back to live with Grace and the Potters.

"For Merlin's sake, Lily, you'll see me in less than twenty-four hours!"

Lily Evan's laughter echoed through Grace's bedroom, even though she wasn't physically present. Grace unconsciously clutched the mirror closer, knowing that she'd never admit it but she had missed the red haired girl who's face was reflected in the mirror instead of her own. Lily's boyfriend James Potter who was in fact Grace's cousin had along with his best mate Sirius Black developed the pair of mirrors that could be used as a two-way communication portal. Grace had convinced James to loan her the mirror after threatening to tell Sirius that he'd filched his mirror to give it to his girlfriend for the week.

"I know it's only been a week, and James was just here yesterday meeting my parents but Petunia's getting married-"

"Someone actually _wants_ to spend their entire life with your sister!" Grace gasped, horrified. She'd only met Petunia once but she still wondered how the hell Lily and that cow were related.

"I'm still trying to get over the shock too," Lily giggled. "But it's like they're soul mates. He's so dreadfully boring and ordinary that I think they'll be perfectly happy together for the rest of their dull predictable long lives." Lily wasn't laughing anymore, and suddenly it didn't seem so funny to Gracie either. Here were two young people, not much older than Lily and Gracie and yet they had their whole lives to look forward too. Their lives might've lacked the excitement and adventure of Lily and Gracie's, but at the same time, Grace wondered like she always did that if she had been born a muggle if her family would still be alive.

"Do you ever wonder what that would be like?" Grace mused aloud.

"What?" Lily asked.

"You know, not having to worry about Death Eaters, and evil lords hell bent on world domination, and dark magic, and powerful magical weapons that must not be named... Don't you ever wonder what it would be like to just be… normal?"

Lily took a moment to think over her answer. Grace knew that they had discussed this before, a year ago, right after Grace's father and little brother had been brutally murdered by Death Eaters. Last year, Lily's answer had been a firm no, but they'd both still been in shock and that had been before last April when Lily's former boyfriend had been murdered and Grace had almost been too. That had been before a powerful magical weapon had been thrust into Lily's hands and she had almost had to sacrifice her own lives and the lives of her closest friends to see that it didn't end up in the hands of Lord Voldemort.

"Yeah, I do," Lily confessed, surprising both of them. "I mean I still wished that I had met you and James, and Sirius and Tiffany, Alice and Frank, Mary and Eddie, the Potters, Ophelia and Rohan…Hope." Lily paused and Grace felt her throat tighten at the mention of Lily's former boyfriend and Grace's mother, both of whom had sacrificed their lives for her last April.

"But I kind of wonder what it would've been like if we did have ordinary muggle lives. I know it wouldn't have been the same, I mean, can you imagine Ophelia Lovegood as a muggle?" Lily asked, attempting to lighten the mood. Grace forced a laugh, but it was hard. She kept wondering what life would be like without this pain in her chest.

"And what would you and James and Sirius do without quidditch?" Lily continued, grinning.

"I suppose we'd take up hamball or runbee or that sport with the bat, the one with the insect name…" Grace trailed off, trying to remember the name.

"It's FOOTBALL and RUGBY and CRICKET," Lily corrected her, laughing. "Forget it. I could never see you as a muggle." Grace smiled.

"Hey, I could do it," Grace protested. "If I did a little research I'm sure I could do a reasonably good job fooling those muggles into thinking I was one of them." Suddenly an idea struck her.

"Speaking of muggles," Grace said, sitting up. "Keith Abbott invited us to a party in muggle London tomorrow night. I think we should go."

"I think _you _should go, seeing as he invited _you_ not _us_."

"Lily, you know it's not like that! I dumped him three years ago. Besides, he invited half of Hogwarts and I don't have the foggiest idea how to get around muggle style."

"Muggle style," Lily snorted.

"Come on, we'll get Tiffany to go, it'll be fun!"

Lily sighed.

"I don't know, Gracie. It'll be New Years Eve and there will be a lot of muggles around. I don't even know my way around muggle London, are you sure we should be-"

"Keith can give us directions!"

"Okay, but Gracie are you sure that you're ready –" Lily stopped herself immediately, but it was too late. Grace caught the flicker of emotions in her eyes. "I mean, it's not really safe. We could get mugged by some muggles." Lily started babbling on about all of the things that could go wrong, but Grace knew that there was really only one thing that she was concerned about and it made Grace sick to her stomach because she knew that Lily had more than a valid reason to be worried about her. If only she knew…

"Hey, I think you've hogged my girlfriend long enough." A heavy hand came down on Grace's shoulder and a smile instantly spread across Lily's face as her eyes locked on to Grace's handsome cousin who was hovering over her. For once Grace was actually happy to have the conversation interrupted. She even handed the mirror over to James without a single comment about how the two love birds couldn't go more than ten minutes without seeing each other. She left James in her room with Lily on planet Potter and headed for the loo. She let the door swing shut behind her and went to the mirror. This time instead of Lily's red hair and almond shaped green eyes, Grace saw her own reflection.

Though it had been months since the attack and her lengthy stay at St. Mungo's, she wasn't the same as she had been before. She was so much thinner and paler. Her blue eyes seemed larger and unnaturally bright in her changed face. Her hair was straighter than it had been before she'd chopped it all off after the murders. She tested the length with her hands wondering if she should cut it all off again.

"Don't even think about cutting it," the mirror told her. Grace smiled, knowing that no matter what her thoughts were about having a muggle life, she would always call the magical world home.

"She's right you know."

Grace turned around and was only a little surprised to find Sirius Black in the doorway. At seventeen, her cousin's best friend hadn't changed all that much from when they had first met. They were still basically the same height, and he still had a nasty habit of getting into trouble and getting under her skin. And yet, just like the first day they met in Diagon Alley he was always showing up when she needed him most and she couldn't stop liking him no matter how much he teased her at times. It was very annoying and most of the time she expressed this annoyance by threatening to maim or kill him. It used to actually work, but not anymore. Their relationship had changed drastically over the past year as their two best mates had started dating, strengthening the bond that had been forming between them as they were thrust into even closer proximity.

"When someone's in the loo, it's sometimes polite to let them have their privacy," she informed him, sarcastically.

"Yes, but not when there's a crisis that needs to be averted," Sirius said, grinning. Merlin, didn't he know what that grin was capable of? Sirius must have been, because he closed the door behind him and approached her. He gently took her by the shoulders and turned her back around so that she was facing the mirror.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, alarmed. Her heart rate had tripled since the moment she noticed his presence. If he didn't leave now she'd probably have a heart attack.

"I'm averting a crisis," he repeated, as their eyes met in the mirror. He stood behind her and she felt his fingers suddenly in her hair. He spread it out between his hands and Grace thought that now would've been an excellent time to tell him to back off, but it felt nice. She closed her eyes as his fingers combed through it and then suddenly his breath was tickling her cheek.

"I like your hair like this," he said.

Grace's eyes snapped open and she smirked.

"Then I guess I'll chop it off," she declared.

"You would do that, wouldn't you?" Sirius sighed, stepping back. Grace immediately missed the warmth of his body. "But I think you'd be making a huge mistake."

"Oh, yes, the world as we know it would end if I were to cut it!" she quipped.

"You'd look a lot older if you cut it," Sirius said seriously, though he was smiling. "I think it would break Heather and Danny's heart to see their little niece looking like a lovely young woman."

Grace's breath caught. He'd called her lovely.

"Also Danny would have to reinforce the wards around the house to accommodate all the extra blokes that would be coming around. James and I would have to arm ourselves with baseball bats, beating off your hundreds of suitors in an effort to preserve your virtue –" Grace rolled her eyes because now he sounded more like the crazy Sirius Black she was used to.

"Okay now you're just being ridiculous and spouting nonsense," she laughed.

"I'm serious!" he protested.

"Yeah, I know," Grace said, acknowledging the old joke. Sirius spun her around so abruptly that Grace almost lost her balance. She reached behind her, steadying herself against the sink. Suddenly, she felt dizzy and she wasn't sure if it had anything to do with Sirius's close proximity. He must have just taken a shower or spilt his cologne because it was all she could smell.

"My lady, I am always at your services. If you need me to beat up Sir Abbott for making unwanted advances –"

"Is that what this is about?" Grace sighed, rubbing at her forehead. She was still really dizzy and though she really did like Sirius's cologne right now there was so much of it that it was making her nauseous. Or at least that was what she was telling herself. "How did you find out about that – right, you're a Marauder," she answered herself, because that was the answer to every question when it came to Sirius and James's eavesdropping and sneaky stealthy abilities.

"Abbott's a very shady and unreliable character. He sneaks around at night and I bet he has a bevy of women. He'd make a terrible boyfriend." Sirius went on, doing a perfectly bad job at coming up with excuses. Grace laughed because the seventh-year Hufflepuff displayed none of these characteristics and Sirius Black in fact did fit the description, and yet it was Sirius, not Keith that made Grace's pulse spike. Her heart rate was spiking now because his large hands were wrapped around her arms, or at least that's what she was hoping.

"Sirius, it's not like that. Keith's just a friend now," Grace reassured him, but she was too busy rubbing her aching forehead to notice the momentary glimpse of relief that spread across Sirius's face. "He invited me to his party along with the rest of the school, but I think he's really hoping that I'll bring Tiffany – ugh – can you let go of me for just one second."

Sirius stepped back immediately but Grace still wasn't able to breathe. The ache in her head had progressed to a pounding and she knew she was going to have to sit down or her legs would give out. She tried to sit down on the sink, but she slipped on the slick edge and fell. Sirius caught her and she sunk down to the floor dragging him with her.

"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously. Grace put her head between her knees and started to take deep breaths like she had been taught.

"Gracie, are you okay?" Sirius asked again, gripping her arm.

"I'm fine," Grace mumbled. _Deep breaths_. "Just something I ate," she lied. _Deep breaths. Take deep breaths_, she repeated like a prayer hoping that this would be one of the times when it actually worked. She didn't want Sirius, of all people, to see her like this. _Please, just let it pass this time_, she prayed.

"Grace –"

"Can you just be quiet for one second, please?" Grace pleaded with him, trying to focus on her breathing. She expected Sirius to ignore her but he shut up. She heard him moving and her arm shot out to grab his arm.

"Don't – I know you want to go get Auntie Heather but don't bother her. I just need a moment," she lied and let go of his arm to wrap her arms around her middle. The phantom pain was back and she grit her teeth and buckled down to ride it out in silence.

"Okay," he said, and she was vaguely aware of him rubbing her back, then there was nothing but the pain.

* * *

It could've been seconds, or minutes, or maybe an hour. She wasn't sure but when she came back to herself Sirius was still sitting beside her. Well, beside her might not have been the best word, perhaps under her would have been a more accurate description. She was practically in his lap. She had either crawled onto him or he had put her there. She had her head buried in his chest and his arms were around her, holding her against him. Thank Merlin, as mortifying as that had been at least _it_ hadn't happened this time.

"I'm alright," she said, sliding off his lap and onto the tiled floor. She pulled down her sleeve and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was still shaking and Sirius noticed.

"Grace, I think we should get Heather or Danny," Sirius suggested, concerned. It was rare for Sirius to suggest getting any kind of help, even if it did come in the form of two people he considered adoptive parents to both of them, Sirius was still more of an independent soul. Suddenly, Grace was glad that it had been Sirius that had been with her and not Lily or James because Sirius could understand. And therefore she might even be able to fool him.

"It's not necessary," Grace said, reaching up for the countertop. She ignored his outstretched hand and instead hauled herself to her feet. "I think I'm allergic to nutmeg, but I don't want to hurt Heather's feelings by telling her not to use it in her cooking anymore," she lied smoothly. She had been taught by the best of course.

Sirius eyed her suspiciously, clearly not buying it, but she already knew that he would accept it. Because buying the lie was so much easier than accepting the truth. It was why she had gotten away with it for so long. She was young, an excellent liar, and they loved her, and therein lay the problem.

She stepped forward and grasped Sirius's hand, making sure that he felt her strength. She twined her fingers through his and looked up at him imploringly, just like she had that day six years ago when they first met.

"Sirius, do you think that you could not tell James or Lily or Danny or Heather and maybe keep this between us?"

Sirius hesitated but she already knew that he would keep her secret, just like he had six years ago because he did understand her and he loved her even if he wasn't fully aware of it.

"Alright," he whispered and Grace closed her eyes in relief, letting her head fall forward onto his shoulder. Sirius wrapped one arm around her shoulders, holding her there and then he startled her by pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "It'll be our little secret," he promised.

"Thanks, Sirius," she said, smiling as she pulled away. "Night," she murmured, heading for her bedroom.

Sirius stared at the doorway that she had just passed out of and then he slumped back against the wall. She drove him crazy and yet he'd give her anything in the world if she asked him too. He'd never felt this way about anyone. Still, Sirius couldn't help but wonder if that pact they'd just made had been a mistake. It was such a small promise and he was probably overreacting, but he couldn't stop thinking about how hard she had been trembling. There was something she wasn't telling anyone, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. Shaking his head, Sirius reassured himself that she was fine but that he would keep a closer eye on her… just in case.

* * *

**December 31, 1976**

"This is bloody ridiculous!"

Seventeen-year old Grace Adams turned to flash a smile over her shoulder at her shivering companions. It was New Year's Eve and Grace had somehow managed to talk them into going to a party that a friend of a friend was having at their flat in muggle London, which meant they had to apparate to a point three blocks away and walk the remaining way. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but Tiffany Crowley was walking in heels so high that she almost came up to Grace's chin, and it was freezing out so the fashionable fur coat she'd opted to wear did little to protect her from the cold, and she'd been cursing Grace every step of the way.

"You didn't have to come," Grace reminded her, tucking her hands into her more sensible black cloak as they crossed the street.

"I know I didn't have to come, but you wouldn't have any fun if I didn't," the blonde sniffed, pulling the furs closer. "I am the only one here that knows how to party."

Grace snorted as Tiffany slipped on the slushy cobblestones and latched onto Lily Evans.

"Ah, yes I can see that," Lily observed drily as she helped Tiffany regain her balance by looping her arm through hers. Her green eyes sparkled with mirth. "I imagine you're going to wow all the eligible wizards when you trip and fall flat on your face."

"Men love nothing more than to sweep a young lady off her feet," Tiffany said sagely.

Lily shared an exasperated look with Grace and rolled her eyes.

"I thought we had sworn off men," Grace said, moving to support Tiffany's other side.

"No, that's our New Year's resolution," Tiffany corrected her. "So, since we're going without men for the next 365 days, we might as well snog as many men as we can in the four hours remaining in this one."

"Well, you can start with me."

The trio looked up to see a pair of familiar faces emerging from the shadows. Both of the tall dark haired men that stepped into their path were attractive and cocky enough that they knew it, but only Sirius Black would have said something lecherous like that. James Potter only had eyes for one girl now. His grin widened and his eyes softened behind his glasses as Lily flung herself into his arms.

"I missed you," Lily sighed as her boyfriend wrapped his arms around her. Grace bit back the urge to point out that it had only been three days since she last saw James.

"I missed you more," James insisted and gave her a long kiss to prove it.

Sirius turned to Gracie and Tiffany with what must have been his "come-to-bed-with-me" grin and held his arms open invitingly.

"So, what do you say? Which one of you lovely ladies wants to snog Hogwart's Most Eligible Bachelor?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Grace laughed a little too loudly.

"Are you serious?" Tiffany sniggered, clearly unimpressed.

"Of course I am," Sirius said, leering at them. "I'm Sirius Black."

"I think it's time you got yourself a new line," Grace said, tired of the old joke and strangely relieved that Tiffany hadn't taken Sirius up on that kiss.

"Or a new name," Tiffany suggested, "Like Remus. Now, Remus is a cool name…" she trailed off, looking around hopefully as if she expected that their friend Remus Lupin was hiding in the shadows as well. Tiffany had a strange fascination with the mysterious member of the Marauders.

"He's waiting for you inside, sweetheart," Sirius said, anticipating the question with a wink. "And I think he could use a good shag." Tiffany swatted his arm but she hurried up the steps with impressive speed considering the heels. Grace made a move to follow her, but a large warm hand curled around her wrist, holding her back.

"I'm not snogging you," she told him before he could offer again. She didn't know if she'd be able to turn him down if he did. Sirius's smarmy grin wilted a little, but he shook his head. Grace's heart skipped a beat as he leaned in so close that his lips brushed over her ear.

"Actually, I had something more fun in mind," he whispered mischievously, turning her so that they both faced their two love struck friends who were still attempting to make up for the agonizing seventy-two hours they'd spent apart. He nudged her with his shoulder and Grace's eyes shifted to follow his. There was a small pile of snow on the curb that someone must've shoveled off their car or their stoop earlier. Grace looked back at Sirius to find that his grin had turned dangerously wicked and she knew exactly what kind of fun he had in mind.

Grinning like maniacs, the two of them hurried over to the curb and started packing the snow into their hands.

"On three," Sirius breathed, as they stood up with snowballs in hand. Grace nodded, as he softly counted down, "One, two, three!"

Grace pulled back her arm and let the snow fly at her target.

THWACK! It struck the back of James's neck.

"What the –" a bewildered James pulled away from Lily, just as Sirius threw the second snowball. It caught him full in the face, swallowing up the string of curses that would have followed.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked in concern, but her hand was curled over mouth as if she was trying not to laugh.

"You dirty dog!" James was already on the ground, retrieving his glasses and trying to figure out where they'd gotten the snow.

"Quick!"

Sirius's cold damp fingers threaded through hers as he pulled her back toward the apartment building, but they weren't fast enough.

"_Winterio_!" James hissed. They tore up the slippery steps as the slush hardened into slick ice beneath their boots. Sirius slid on the front stoop, slamming into her from behind. Grace found herself squashed up against the front door with Sirius uncomfortably pressed up against her.

"Damn it!" Sirius cursed as he tried to brace himself and remain standing upright on the ice patch James had created. Grace pounded on the door with the flat of her hand and Sirius stabbed at one of the glowing buttons on the side of the building.

"Come on! Open the do-" Sirius broke off as the door suddenly swung open. Grace toppled inside with Sirius and James piling in after her. James tackled Sirius, throwing him to the ground but a pair of arms caught Gracie before she could be pulled into the fray.

"Are you alright?" the young stranger asked, gently settling her back on her feet. A concerned pair of brown eyes scanned her from head to toe.

"Fine," Grace managed, blushing in embarrassment as his eyes lingered appreciatively on her. She was dimly aware of the fact that Lily was breaking up Sirius and James.

"Are you sure?" Grace looked up at him, taking in his fair skin and his mop of blonde hair. It was rare that a man was able to tower over her, but this young man who couldn't be much older than her seemed to have been gifted with the height advantage that she wished many of her other male peers possessed.

"Yeah, I –"

"Hey, Adams!" Grace was almost relieved when the interruption came in the form of Keith Abbot before she could humiliate herself further. "Thanks for coming!" the Hufflepuff said cheerfully, giving her a friendly one armed hug that would have been more suitable for one of the guys – it was one of the reasons why Grace and him hadn't lasted very long as a couple back in their Fifth year and also why they remained friends. Even so it drew a dark glare from Sirius Black and James Potter. Grace rolled her eyes at them just as Keith released her.

"Thanks for inviting me," she said graciously. Keith clapped the blonde Adonis on the shoulder.

"I see you've met Oliver," he said, grinning. Oliver grinned back at Keith, and Grace suddenly noticed that despite their dramatic difference in height they bore a slight resemblance to one another.

"I take it you go to school with my cousin as well?" Oliver guessed.

Grace nodded.

"When I told Keith my parents were going to be out of town I thought he might invite a few friends, I was unaware that he meant he was going to invite the entire student body," Oliver said dryly as Keith shrugged sheepishly.

"Come on mate, you needed someone to show you how to have a good time," Keith said jovially and Grace was reminded of Tiffany. "Oliver goes to Oxford," he said loudly, as if this was supposed to mean something to them.

"Oh, really?" Lily sounded impressed but she was the only one. "What are you studying?" she asked genuinely curious.

"Medicine," Oliver answered and it suddenly occurred to Grace that Oliver was a muggle.

"When I was a kid I dreamed of going to Oxford and studying medicine there," Lily recalled with a dreamy smile.

"Maybe you will," Oliver said kindly, "What school did you say you were from?"

Lily rattled off the fake name so quickly and Oliver accepted it so readily that Grace suspected that unlike whatever lies Keith was feeding Oliver, Lily's was a genuine muggle school, one that she might've actually gone to if it hadn't been for her Hogwarts letter. Sometimes Grace actually forgot that Lily was muggleborn.

"I don't think Oxford's in my future," Lily said regretfully, forcing a laugh. "When we're children it seems so easy to imagine growing up to be a doctor. We're too young to know what it really takes to save lives."

"You will," James reassured her, winding an arm possessively around her waist. He eyed Oliver as he pulled Lily in close and kissed her neck. Lily's laughter was genuine this time.

"James, that tickles!"

As much as Grace loved the fact that two of the people she cared for most had found happiness in each other, she didn't think she could tolerate any more of the lovey dovey behavior they were exhibiting. Fortunately the buzzer distracted them. Keith jumped for the door and Oliver sighed, catching Grace's eye.

"I don't know why I'm here. I think it would've been more practical to rent the place out to my cousin and spare you all the tiresome Oxford student that actually lives here sometimes," he said, as Keith enthusiastically greeted Hestia Jones and her silly younger sister Athena. Grace noted with some amusement that Lily made an extra effort to give Hestia a warm greeting but kept her arm around James. Athena, she observed, threw herself right into Sirius's arms. James may have been practically family to the Jones, but Sirius was obviously not. Turning away in disgust, she grinned up at the tall young man beside her.

"Well, I'm glad you're here, Oliver."

"Are you?" he asked, smiling slowly. "You just met me. You have no idea what a complete bore I turn into when faced with the prospect of a beautiful woman."

It had been a long time since a guy had looked at her like that, and it had been even longer since Grace had wanted to flirt back, but Grace was going to make the effort even if it killed her. It had been far too long since she'd had some fun.

"Yeah," she smiled and touched his arm. "Why don't you get me a drink and then let me be the judge."

"Alright, but if at any point I'm boring you –"

"Oh, I think I know how to shut you up," Grace giggled and sidled closer. "I like you," Oliver grinned and pressing a hand into the small of her back, he guided her into the living room. Grace didn't notice the way Sirius's eyes followed her out the door, tracking her movement like a silent shadow. If she had maybe she could have prevented what happened to the bubbly Jones girl at Sirius's side, who he later left without a moment's hesitation.

* * *

"It's bloody unfair that you wind up with the hottest guy here!" Tiffany Crowley laughed as she and Grace swung their hips in time to the music. "Seriously, Grace how did you manage to snag him? He's gorgeous!" She was practically shouting in order to make herself heard over the loud music but Grace didn't care. She didn't care that Sirius was dancing with Hestia's silly sister that wore enough makeup to make her look like a clown. She didn't care that they'd lost Lily and James almost as soon as they walked in or that Tiffany kept repeating herself because she was so bloody drunk. She didn't care that the room was sweltering and filled with way too many kids and she certainly didn't care that Oliver had given her enough alcohol to lower all of her inhibitions. She wanted to know where Oliver was now with their third round of drinks but instead her gaze kept going to Sirius.

Grace stopped dancing because in the sixty seconds since she'd last checked, Sirius had vanished. Hestia's sister was alone and glaring daggers at Gracie. Grace had no idea what she had done to the girl to make her look at her like that, until suddenly she felt a pair of large hands glide over her hips, fitting into her sides like they belonged there.

"Hey!" Sirius shouted in her ear. If Grace had been sober, she probably would've winced and shoved him away. His breath stank of firewhiskey. "I don't like that strange bloke that's been dancing with you."

"I'm not sure if I like him either," Grace confessed with all the honesty of a drunk. "But he's nice and he's gorgeous and he's really, really tall," she giggled. Sirius twirled her around as the tempo of the music got faster, pulling her tight against his body.

"I'm nice," he informed her.

"Sometimes," Grace admitted.

"And I'm tall."

"I'm taller," Grace lied, standing on tip toe so that she managed to overcome the inch or two that Sirius had on her. Sirius playfully tugged on her hips again, forcing her back down on her heels with a laugh.

"I'm gorgeous." It wasn't a question, it was a fact. The smile that he gave her was fool proof evidence. It was enough to make any girl swoon.

"Mmm," Grace murmured, doing just that. She leaned heavily against his hard chest, no longer caring that they were no longer dancing in time to the music. She knew that in the morning she would regret this, but right now she just didn't care about anything except him."Yes, you are."

"So, why did you spend the whole night dancing with him instead of me?"

Grace didn't really know the answer to that question. But she knew it had something to do with the fact that he was hot, really hot, even hotter than Oliver and there had been a girl that had thrown himself at her. Hestia's sister. Was it Athena or Aphrodite? She was really, really silly and Grace thought it was really, really silly of Sirius to go around dancing with a girl like that.

"You were dancing with Afro_ – _afra_ –_" Grace giggled, because it was really difficult to say Aphrodite and it was such a funny name. Sirius chuckled too at her slurred attempts at Athena's nickname. By the end of the night they would be calling her afro girl but neither one of them would remember it in the morning. In fact, they wouldn't remember much of anything that happened that night.

Grace would have a vague recollection of dancing with Sirius until the lights began to blur and all she was aware of was their bodies moving together in time to the music. It had felt so right, like their bodies had been meant to be joined like that. They were so in tune with each other. She hadn't wanted to stop.

He had stopped her though, dragging her out of the trance that the music and his body had thrown her into. He took her by the hand and into the shadow of a staircase. After that, she didn't remember what happened. But she did know this: she was ready to tell him the truth.

Maybe that was how she ended up sitting on an unfamiliar front stoop in tears. The streetlights blurred before her eyes. It was snowing. She forgot about crying as she studied each beautiful flake as it came down. It was so, so pretty like nothing she had ever seen before. The snowflakes melted and vanished as they landed on her hand. Nothing so beautiful could last. She wanted to cry again but instead she got up and walked unsteadily out into the snow.

She heard someone calling her name and she wobbled as she turned. A stranger was coming out of the shadows, running toward her.

She was so tired of running that she finally let them catch her.

"Gotcha," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

"You got me." Grace closed her eyes, and let her head slump against his chest. She felt his hand on her forehead, gently smoothing her hair back from her forehead. She sighed and let him pick her up and carry her back into the shadows she'd been running from. It was no use trying to escape, they always found her again.

* * *

He waited for hours and hours, biding his time. Many people passed him and each time he caught a whiff of a sweet scent, he thought maybe, maybe this time. But each time there was always someone else or something else that drove him back into the shadows. Finally, though, when the snow started falling and the sky was lightening, he found her.

She was walking unsteadily down the street, weaving back and forth. She was way too drunk to apparate. Even if she did have her wand on her, he knew she would be no match for him. It wasn't long before she sat down shivering. He knew he had to make his move now.

Stepping out of the shadows, he called her name. She looked up and once she saw him, she stood. She wobbled and tried to run, but he dashed across the street and easily intercepted her before she could make her escape.

"Gotcha," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

She blinked up at him, and then her eyes widened in horror. But she wasn't going to try and escape. He had waited too long for this. He placed one hand on her forehead and her eyes closed, her body going limp against him. He ran his hands over her body, feeling the contours of her body change as he picked her up in his arms.

"Hello, again Gracie," he whispered, smiling fondly as he carried her back into the shadows. "You're coming home with me."

Evan Wilkes turned on the spot and apparated away with the raven haired girl slumped in his arms and no one the wiser.

* * *

**A/N**: **Cliffhanger! I know it's been forever but I simply couldn't leave this unfinished. I have two more chapters written that might need just a little bit of tweaking but I promise they'll be up within the next couple of weeks. It's a bit confusing now, but I promise that just like I'll Fight For You everything will come together in the end. Please let me know what you think and look out for the next chapter soon!**


	3. The Warning

**I'll Wait For You**

**By Hazelmist**

**Summary: This is a sequel/spin off of my Lily and James story I'll Fight For You but it's going to focus more on Grace Adams and her relationship with Sirius Black. I highly recommend you read I'll Fight For You first or you'll be very confused. If you want a summary, look at the top of the prologue chapter. In the prologue we see two very different first encounters between Grace and Sirius and Grace and Evan Wilkes in Diagon Alley before they start their first year (as well as glimpses of the Adams, Lily and James). Grace and James upset a shopkeeper, get separated and Grace gets dragged off by Evan Wilkes to Knockturn Alley. He corners her and tells her that her mother murdered his and put his father in Azkaban and that he's going to make her pay for that, but Sirius arrives in time to rescue her and bring her back to Diagon Alley to her family. Grace asks her father if it's true and he says it's not but the chapter ends with Evan Wilkes receiving the news that his father has been executed in Azkaban and him vowing revenge. The previous chapter ups the timeline to the winter holidays in the Seventh and final year at Hogwarts, six years after the events in the prologue and one year after the showdown in I'll Fight For You. The previous chapter shows Grace hiding something from her family and friends, going to a NYE party with her friends in muggle London and meeting a handsome muggle. The previous chapter ended and began with Evan Wilkes POV this one begins and ends with Evans POV as well. **

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except for maybe Gracie, Mary, Oliver and Ophelia. **

**A/N: Sorry I'm kind of out of practice writing, but this has been done for months it just needed to be finished so I'm updating! The next chapter is done as well so please review and I'll post it soon!**

* * *

**Chapter Two: The Warning**

He never brought her home. He abandoned her in an alleyway near a rarely used entrance to the Ministry of Magic with his signature scrawled across her bare chest. Stepping back, he took the time to admire his spellwork. In time the enchantments would wear off, but for now it looked almost like Grace Adams had finally gone to her eternal rest.

"Sweet dreams," he murmured, bending to kiss the raven haired girl's head. A ragged breath escaped the girl's bloody lips, warming his cheeks. It was hard to believe that she had survived all of that, but those stupid Gryffindors always fought to the death.

He snapped her neck. She stilled. He grinned as he stepped away from the lifeless girl.

"Good night, Gracie."

* * *

She drifted in and out of consciousness. It was cold and the rough coat that she clung to smelt strange and unfamiliar. His hands were freezing and just a little too tight, but they were all that were holding her together. She let him carry her, keeping her eyes clamped shut against the world that wouldn't stop spinning. Even when they came to a halt, the spins continued.

"You got her?" a breathless voice asked.

"Yeah, she passed out as soon as I caught up to her," her stranger answered.

"I can take her from here," the other voice snapped. She felt the freezing hands relinquish their stiff hold on her, and a pair of warm hands replaced them as she was shifted from one pair of arms to another.

"I think she should stay here until she sobers up," the stranger said.

"No, I think you've done more than enough," the other practically snarled. "I'm taking her home."

She opened her eyes for just a moment, looking up into his face. When she recognized him, she sighed and buried her face into his cloak. It smelt like home.

* * *

The next morning Grace woke with an unpleasant pounding in her head and Sirius Black in her face. She didn't remember much of what had happened last night but she remembered enough of it to know that she had drank way too much.

"Ugh, go away!" she moaned, pulling the covers over her head. She felt awful and she probably looked it too. It wasn't that she was vain or anything, or that she minded waking up to such a handsome view, but she was almost positive that she was going to hurl if she tried to lift her head again.

"Come on, Gracie. You'll feel much better once you take this, trust me," Sirius chuckled, gently prying the blanket from her fingers. Grace groaned as he helped her to sit up, refusing to open her eyes because she didn't want to see how amusing he was finding her predicament.

"Here," he said, cupping one of her hands around a cold glass. "Drink this."

Grace had the glass halfway to her lips before she caught a whiff of it and immediately stopped. She cracked open one eye and growled, "Sirius Black if you put dragon dung in this I swear to Merlin's baggy y fronts that I will kill you."

"Grace Adams, you wound me. I'm appalled that you think I am capable of such mischief!"

Grace opened her other eye and glared at him.

"In my defense I never told you to drink James's coffee," Sirius said, lifting his hands defensively.

"Yeah, but you didn't exactly tell me NOT to drink it either," Grace grumbled, recalling the day two years ago when Sirius had laced James's coffee. To this day neither James nor Grace could tolerate the drink.

"It doesn't have dragon dung in it, I swear, and it'll make your hangover go away instantly. But if you want to spend the next six hours throwing up every twenty minutes –" Sirius made to take the glass away but Grace turned her body away from him and with a wrinkle of her nose she tipped back her head and forced it down her throat.

"That was disgusting," she said, making a face as she handed the empty glass back to him.

"Well, it did contain dragon sperm –"

"Dragon WHAT?" Grace's hand flew to her lips.

"Feel better?" Sirius inquired innocently.

Grace realized with a shock that she did feel better, loads better. Sirius laughed but got up from the bed and out of reach, just in case she did decide to punch him.

"I'm going to pretend that that was a joke," Grace said generously.

"Good, because I would hate to have you trying to beat the shit out of me the WHOLE way to St. Mungo's."

"What?" Grace threw off the covers and looked as if she were reconsidering her decision not to punch him. Somehow it always seemed like Sirius was the bearer of bad news and he always paid dearly for it.

"You've got an appointment at St. Mungos in two hours," Sirius informed her, keeping one hand on the doorknob. "They owled Heather and Danny this morning. Just a check up I think…"

Grace swore and aimed a kick at the bedside table. Sirius winced as one of the framed photographs balanced on the tabletop fell and shattered. Against his better judgment, he left the safety of the doorway and retrieved it from the floor.

"Why can't they just leave me alone?" Grace groaned, flopping back down on her bed. "I'm fine now! Bringing me in is only going to make me physically ill and more miserable. I hate St. Mungos. I hate all of this."

"I know," Sirius said quietly, looking down at the photograph in his hand. He tried to think of something to say to lighten the situation, but all of the humor was sucked right out of him at the sight of her family waving back at him. There was Mark and little Christopher with his mischievous grin and Hope before her memories were shattered. But what really killed him was seeing how carelessly happy and bright and childish Gracie looked in the photograph, standing between her living and breathing parents with her arms wrapped around her baby brother. Sirius swallowed hard and tapped his wand to the frame, repairing the shattered glass before replacing it on the bedside table. He wished it would be that easy to fix Gracie, because dense as he sometimes was, he knew that there was more than just grief plaguing her. Something wasn't right but Sirius couldn't understand it.

"Thanks," Grace said and he looked up to find her staring at the photograph.

"I miss them too, you know," he said carefully, though he didn't know if it was the right thing to say.

Grace nodded as if she already knew this and stretched out a hand to touch the frame. She traced the edge as if she were getting rid of the dust, but it had been handled so often that Sirius knew that there was none. Suddenly her hand stilled, her whole body freezing up.

"Sirius?" she whispered, deliberately avoiding his eyes. "What happened last night?"

"You got completely sloshed," he chuckled.

"I know that," she said, rolling her eyes. "But did I do anything or say anything… odd?" she asked tentatively, staring hard at the photograph.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck, because though he remembered a hell of a lot more than Gracie did, the details were fuzzy but from what he did recall… There had been something really important, but that was where everything got a little cloudy. Grace had been trying to tell him something but then she'd taken off and after that everyone had been out searching for her until that dumb muggle bloke finally caught up with her in the street and brought her back safely. Sirius wished he could remember what it was that was clearly bothering Gracie but he couldn't.

"Well, first, I saved you from some muggle ogre, and then you told me you thought I was hot and gorgeous, and I think at one point we shagged and it was awesome –"

Grace punched his arm but she was grinning and therefore he was grinning. It was addicting.

"For a Marauder, you're a lousy liar," she laughed.

"What gave me away?" he asked, pretending to be stumped.

"You called Oliver an ogre and I'm pretty sure you would've had a black eye and been missing a limb if you had even attempted to have sex with me," she said, hitting him with her pillow. Sirius leapt to his feet.

"He was freakishly tall!" he retorted as he moved out of range.

"But also freakishly good looking!" Grace added, brandishing her pillow as she shooed him toward the door.

"And we could have shagged, you'll never know…" he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, trust me, I'd know!" Grace smacked him with the pillow again and Sirius retreated behind the door.

"You never denied admitting that I'm gorgeous!" he sing songed through the crack. The door slammed so hard in his face that it almost caught his nose. "Be ready in an hour, love!" he laughed, and then whistling he went on his way. Grace leaned against the doorframe, listening as his annoying tune faded away and then she took a running leap and threw herself face down on the bed.

What the hell was wrong with her? She almost blew it. Closing her eyes, she made a vow to herself never to get drunk with Sirius Black ever again. It was too dangerous.

* * *

Grace Adams opened her eyes and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. She lay on her back with her hands tucked behind her head. She kept crossing and uncrossing her ankles, shifting for a more comfortable position on the hard hospital bed in St. Mungo's, but the nervous jitters in her stomach would not go away. Why hadn't the healers come back yet? It had to have been more than an hour.

"Stop doing that," a voice chided her, from the bedside. "You're making me nervous."

Grace kicked out blindly in the general direction of the voice. She smirked as her toe connected with bone, eliciting a muffled curse from the figure slumped in the armchair.

"That's it, I can't take this anymore," he sighed. She heard the chair legs scrape across the floor and the squeak of the bed springs as the mattress sunk inward.

Grace tried to roll off the bed, but the boy was too quick for her. In one fluid movement, he was on the bed with her and had one strong arm thrown across her, imprisoning both her arms. Grace caught her breath as he rearranged himself around her so that he wasn't hurting her but he was definitely preventing as little movement as possible.

"Black! GET OFF ME!" she wheezed, but she was paralyzed. With the exception of her racing heart, all of her muscles had suddenly clenched and tensed beneath him, and as much she'd like to blame it on the potion the healer had given her, she knew it had more to do with the attractive boy on the bed with her.

It was the first time they'd touched each other in weeks, maybe months, not since they'd snogged on Halloween like there was no tomorrow… The morning after, Grace had blamed it on the alcohol, and had done everything in her power to convince herself and everyone else that that Sir Bottlebum's Wicked Rum the _only_ reason why she snogged Sirius Black. Luckily, Grace had no idea that despite going out of her way to avoid touching, flirting, staring or even smiling at him the wrong way, she wasn't fooling anyone. Last night was proof of that.

"I'll murder you if you don't move!" she threatened.

"They're going to murder _you_ if you won't quit moving around. The healers said you're supposed to lie still," he reminded her, looking remarkably serious for someone who you could rarely take seriously. It was ironic considering that his name was Sirius Black.

"It's been like three hours!" she complained.

"It's only been twenty minutes," Sirius informed her.

Grace groaned, knowing that he was right on both accounts.

"I can't sit still. I'm going mental!"

"I noticed." He grinned. "You're practically crackling with energy. I think you might be trembling."

Grace felt her face flush knowing that being confined to a hospital bed for the past hour wasn't the only reason why she was shaking. She could keep telling herself and everyone else that she had only snogged him because she was drunk, but her body always betrayed her.

"You're crushing me," she lied.

"Sorry." He eased himself up off of her, just enough so that she could breathe easily again. He was still too close for comfort, though, because her heart continued to race. When it became apparent that he wasn't planning on moving, she cleared her throat.

"You're still on top of me."

"I'm barely touching you!" he protested, but he retracted his arm and shifted so that they were lying side by side. However he did not get off the bed. Instead he settled in on his stomach beside her and closed his eyes.

"Black!"

"That chair's so bloody uncomfortable I'll probably never feel my buttocks again!" he whined. Grace snorted, there was always an ulterior motive. "Besides," he continued, "maybe you'll stop moving around and relax if I stay here."

Grace opened her mouth to tell him that relaxing was the last thing she was going to be able to do with him in such close proximity, but she didn't want to admit that he was affecting her and he did seem to be having a calming effect on her. She was no longer fidgeting and her heart beat had slowed down to its normal rate. In fact, everything seemed to be slowing down. Sirius grinned, as she realized what the healer had also slipped into the potion. Bastards.

"Was it a sleeping draught or a calming draught?" she asked, even as her eyelids started to grow heavy.

"Not sure, but the healer said it'd kick in a half hour," he yawned and snuggled closer to her, knowing there was nothing she could do about it.

"You're incorrigible and a prick, you know that?"

"Sweet dreams," Sirius responded cheekily, patting the top of her head.

Grace's last thought before sleep took her was that she hoped the healers or her uncle caught him in bed with her and threw his sorry arse out.

* * *

Sirius knew the exact moment when Grace finally fell asleep, not because he had spent several nights in the past year watching over her as she slept, but because she started to snore. He chuckled aloud, unafraid of waking her, now that the draught had kicked in. She'd be out for at least another three hours, the healers had assured him of that, which was why they had insisted on someone staying with her. James's mother had the flu, and his father was called away to the Ministry, so James stayed with his mother while Sirius took Grace to her appointment.

Sirius didn't understand why it was necessary for the healers to drag her back into St. Mungos just to give her a sleeping draught. But it seemed to him that the healers had done a lot of useless tests on Gracie in the past six months. Not that he blamed them. Grace had been hit with a curse that no one had ever survived, and yet miraculously she had made a full recovery over the course of a few months. Or at least it had seemed that way.

Sirius propped himself up on his elbow so that he could gaze down at the girl beside her. As he reached out to brush an errant strand of hair from her face, he was struck by how much younger she looked as she slept. In the past year they'd all been forced to grow up fast, even Sirius, though he would never acknowledge it. But Grace had aged more prematurely and noticeably after her family was brutally murdered over a year ago and when she had spent months recovering from the curse meant to kill her. Watching her sleep now, he was suddenly reminded of the eleven-year old that he encountered in Knockturn Alley. Because of her height she had always appeared older, but on that day her eyes had betrayed a naivety that she wouldn't lose until sixteen. Even when he'd come across her in that run down shop with that slimy little Slytherin, Grace had insisted that it had been nothing more than a childish scuffle rather than an attempt on her life. Sirius suspected that Grace had repeated the lie so many times that she'd come to believe it. But in the past year Grace had been forced to see the truth, the whole truth, and it had taken something out of her that Sirius desperately wished that he could give her back. He had remorselessly robbed more than one girl of their innocence, but never before had he ever felt the urge to preserve it. It was disconcerting for Sirius and it made him willing to accept Grace's efforts to keep him at arm's length, most of the time.

Lying beside her warm unconscious body in the bed, Sirius found it hard not to take advantage of the situation, but he knew that now was not the time. He sat up, hesitated, and then pressed a chaste kiss to the corner of her mouth.

"Sweet dreams, Gracie," he whispered. He got to his feet just as the door swung open, admitting three healers dressed in the standard uniform green robes.

"Is she out?" the eldest demanded, not even looking up from the clip board in his hand.

Sirius nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. He didn't like the unpleasant wizard in charge of Grace's case but he was supposedly one of the best in the Wizarding World. The wizard let go of the clip board and barked orders at the other two as he went to Gracie. The clip board bobbed along behind him, smacking Sirius over the head as it passed. Sirius scowled at the healer and rubbed the back of his head.

"You may leave now," the healer said without looking up from his patient. It wasn't a suggestion. He had Grace's slender wrist in his hand and his wand aimed at her throat. Sirius didn't like the way the healer was manhandling her.

"What are you doing to her?" Sirius stepped forward, wanting to put himself between Grace and the wizard.

"Take him outside," the healer ordered.

"I want to stay with her," Sirius insisted, but a freckled hand curled around his forearm and propelled him toward the door. Sirius could have easily slipped out of the girl's grasp but the shock of recognition momentarily stilled him.

"Don't make me call security," the head healer snarled, misinterpreting Sirius's hesitance. The girl widened her eyes meaningfully and nodded toward the door. Sirius sighed and with one last look over his shoulder, he followed her outside.

The door hadn't even shut behind them before Sirius rounded on her.

"What's going on in there? What are they planning on doing to her?"

"Hello, Sirius. I had a splendid holiday, thank you for asking," Mary Pewter said, pulling herself up to her full height and adjusting her spectacles. He hadn't seen her in months, but she still looked like she should have been patrolling the halls at Hogwarts, fulfilling her duties as the Head Girl. Except she wasn't the Head Girl anymore, Lily Evans was, and Mary had moved on apparently to become a healer: a healer assigned to Grace's case.

"Mary, I want to know what's going on, right now." Sirius knew he was going about this all wrong. He was Sirius Black for Merlin's sake, Hogwart's Most Eligible Bachelor, and Mary Pewter was a girl he knew he could charm; but when Sirius saw the healers come in like that and immediately asked him to leave, it had unsettled him. Something felt strange about this whole "checkup" and Sirius wanted to know that Grace was alright.

"I'd love to tell you Sirius," Mary said, shaking her head. "But Grace's file is classified. As a trainee assigned to the healer in charge of her case I am expected to respect the privacy rights of not only Gracie but the healers and researchers assigned to her case - "

"Mary, please!" Sirius pleaded, interrupting her spiel before she could close herself off from him entirely. Changing tactics, he started to move in on her but Mary ducked beneath his arm.

"That's not going to work on me, Black," she chuckled, sweeping past him. Sirius blew out a frustrated breath and then raced after her.

"Mary, this is important!" he begged as he easily caught up to her.

"My job happens to be important to me too, you know. In case you've been living under a rock for the past seventeen years, less than eleven percent of applicants manage to land a placement at St. Mungo's and of those only –"

"I'm worried about her," Sirius blurted out.

Mary stopped so suddenly that Sirius ran right into her. She spun to face him.

"Good Golly, you heard about the other girl, didn't you?" she whispered, her eyes widening.

Sirius didn't know what the hell she was talking about but now he had her full attention. Taking advantage of the moment, he slung an arm around her shoulders.

"Come on, Mary, I only want to ask you –"

"Not here!" Mary hissed, glancing around nervously. Sirius didn't note anything suspicious about the passing healers and visitors, but Mary was twitching as if you-know-who himself was lurking in their midst. She leaned closer to him and started mumbling under her breath. Fortunately Sirius had excellent hearing.

"Meet me in the chapel in a half hour."

Then she slipped out from beneath his arm and disappeared into a group of green robes.

Sirius would have been annoyed that she was making him wait like this, but it took him the better part of the thirty minutes to find the room. He could have asked for directions of course, but Sirius was a Marauder and Marauders don't ask for directions, they make their own trails. Luckily Sirius only searched two of the floors before deciding to start back down at the ground floor. He was a terribly curious person and it took him all of thirty seconds before he decided to push open the big old wooden door at the end of the hallway.

The smell of smoke and incense let him know he'd found the right place even before he saw them standing together in the shafts of colored light that came through the stained glass windows. Blinded by the rainbows, Sirius almost missed the wand that was lifted and aimed at his head.

He ducked just in time. The heavy door slammed shut behind him, locking him in.

"Blimey, Bones, are you trying to decapitate me?" Sirius cursed the bloke standing beside Mary with his wand still raised.

"Relax," Edgar Bones said, though he stood so stiffly that he looked anything but relaxed. "I just want to be sure that no one follows you in here. I don't want us to be overheard."

"Well, you could have just said something instead of scaring the hell out of me," Sirius grumbled, but he quietly cast his own spell to assure that they didn't have any eavesdroppers just in case. Then he turned to take in the pair before him.

Unlike Mary, the former Head Boy had changed a lot in the months since he'd graduated Hogwarts. He wore the robes of an Auror in training now and had shaved his head and lost weight, but it wasn't the physical differences that bothered Sirius. He hadn't put his wand away and there was a seriousness about him that was nothing like the pompous Head Boy façade that they'd all enjoyed making fun of. Oddly, the unfailingly polite Hufflepuff hadn't smiled or moved to shake Sirius's hand like he did with everyone. Sirius wondered if Eddie had a problem with him or was just having an off day, but Mary was watching her former partner with the same wariness that Sirius felt.

"So," Sirius cleared his throat and joined the pair by the altar. "Are we going to talk about Gracie?"

"First," Eddie pointed his wand at him again, "I want to know how you found out about Athena."

"Athena?" Sirius backed up a step. The name vaguely meant something to him but Sirius didn't understand what this had to do with Gracie.

"Athena Jones," Eddie clarified for him, but it didn't help him much. He knew who she was now. Athena was the prettier of the two Jones siblings or at least she would have been if she hadn't been so silly and worn so much makeup. Sirius remembered her now. She had been a year behind Hestia and two years ahead of him and some of the boys had called her Aphrodite. He might've gone out with her once or snogged her in the Astronomy Tower. He thought she'd danced with him at that New Year's Eve party last night but he couldn't remember and frankly he was too concerned about Gracie to care. But Mary and Eddie were staring at him as if he was supposed to be having some sort of epiphany.

"What about her?" he asked carefully.

"She's dead."

Sirius blinked at Eddie and then shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that she had died," he said shocked. He'd just seen the girl hours ago alive and well.

"You didn't know?" Eddie's voice was like flint.

"No, this is the first I heard of it," Sirius confessed. Eddie turned his steely gaze on Mary and she flinched away from him.

"I'm sorry, Eddie, he was so worried about her that I thought he knew, and then I didn't know how he found out and I panicked and–"

"It's alright, Mary," Eddie said quietly, but it was obvious that it was not alright. Sirius didn't care though. All he cared about at the moment was Gracie and they'd already wasted enough time.

"Look, Mary, why don't we talk about Gracie and then I'll pretend that we never had this conversation, okay?" Sirius suggested.

"We are talking about Gracie!" Mary snapped.

Eddie closed his eyes and Sirius knew that Mary had just made another mistake and told him something she shouldn't have.

"Mary…" Eddie's tone was a warning. But Mary didn't flinch away from him this time and instead stood up straighter. She was morphing into the Head Girl that she once was and suddenly it was like they were all back at Hogwarts with the two of them discussing whether or not to dock points from him.

"Eddie, I don't care about what the Aurors think is best. I think that _someone_ should know."

"Her uncle will be told of course."

"Her uncle's not going to be at Hogwarts! Her uncle's not going to be able to protect her all the time."

"Neither is Sirius!" Eddie's voice echoed through the chapel and the illusion was shattered. They were not at Hogwarts and this was not a matter of docking points or writing him up but something much more serious. Eddie sighed as he looked at Mary and something in him seemed to break. "Mary, if it's true, if he really did survive, I don't think anyone will be able to stop him."

"Who? Who survived?" Sirius asked, feeling like an idiot.

Mary's face fell and her shoulders slumped.

"The Aurors think that they have proof that Evan Wilkes survived the mausoleum collapse," she whispered.

Sirius flashed back to that horrible night, but the thing that stuck out most in his mind was Grace's battered body on the floor of the mausoleum. Even though it had been you-know-who that had been threatening to kill her, Evan Wilkes was the one that brought her there and reduced her to that bloody state. Wilkes had been the one that set the whole thing in motion, and Sirius had hoped along with everyone else that he had died a very painful death when Lily brought the roof of the mausoleum down on the Death Eater's heads.

"How can you be so sure?" Sirius asked, hoping that there was still a chance he was dead.

"Athena Jones," Eddie said wearily. Sirius was already sick of Athena Jones.

"What the hell does Athena Jones have to do with Gracie and Wilkes?"

"Well, he murdered her, I think that's proof that he's still alive," Eddie said drily. "Athena was found this morning and his DNA is all over the mutilated body as is spellwork and if that wasn't enough proof he transfigured her features so that she looked less like Athena and more like…" he tapered off, swallowing hard.

"Like what?" Sirius forced himself to ask, though he really, really didn't want to know. Eddie and Mary exchanged a look and then Mary shakily answered.

"Grace. He branded Grace's name into her chest."

Suddenly, Sirius had to sit down. Eddie caught him by the elbow, helping him over to one of the stone benches. They sat down on either side of him, exchanging anxious looks over the top of his head but thankfully not making any effort to touch or console him. Sirius leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and burying his hands in his hair. He counted the red candles that lined the altar until he was sure that he wasn't going to throw up.

"Is that why they brought Gracie in today?" Sirius inquired, and if his voice was a lot weaker and thinner than usual they pretended not to notice. "They just wanted to make sure she was okay?"

Sirius missed the look that passed between Eddie and Mary.

"Yes."

"So, she's alright? I mean she didn't relapse or anything. It's just a standard checkup, right?"

He never saw the internal struggle that played out across Mary's face in that long drawn out moment of hesitance and he didn't notice the way her voice shook or how she had to look away from Eddie and Sirius and the stained glass windows and the altar before them.

"Yes, Sirius, Gracie's fine," she reassured him.

Sirius closed his eyes, blissfully unaware of the fact that it was a blatant lie.

Mary had to get up and leave.

* * *

The first thing Grace saw when she woke up was Mary Pewter, kneeling by her bedside. The former Head Girl hadn't been assigned to Grace's case until the final weeks of Grace's prolonged stay at St. Mungos, but during that short amount of time Mary had learned more about Gracie than even her family and closest friends knew. Grace in turn, had learned to read Mary very quickly, which is how she knew almost instinctively that Sirius had cornered Mary.

"You told him," Grace whispered accusingly.

"No." Mary shook her head and Grace relaxed. Mary was a horrible liar which was one of the reasons why Grace was glad she'd been assigned to her case. Most of the other healers tried to sugarcoat things and talked in dizzying circles but Mary blurted things out and didn't understand the art of bull shitting.

"I couldn't," Mary whispered, hiding her face in her arms. Grace knew how hard it was for her, keeping this up, but Mary hadn't let her down yet.

"Thank you," Grace said, touching the girl's shoulder.

Mary rolled her head to the side just enough so that she could look at her through her lopsided spectacles.

"Are you ever going to tell them?" she asked.

Grace responded with a bitter smile.

"I think I'm still hoping I won't have to."

Mary removed her glasses and rubbed hard at her eyes. "Grace," she sighed. "Don't you think that maybe you should break it to them now before -"

"No," Grace said firmly. She threw back the sheets and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"Grace, you can't just - stop!" Mary burst out, just as Grace stumbled from the bed and into the bedside table. Mary was at her side in an instant, reminding her that the draught still needed some time to wear off. Grace cursed softly, shaking Mary off as she leaned against the bedpost to impatiently await the return of her equilibrium.

Mary regarded her with that exasperated look that she'd worn so many times when she'd caught the younger students doing something particularly stupid or silly.

"You won't be able to hide it forever." Mary was simply stating the obvious but it still made Grace mad.

"I know," she snapped back, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I think that I know that better than anyone else. And it's not like I'm hiding anything I'm just trying to be myself again and live a normal life…" she finished lamely. But that was a lie, because she wasn't herself anymore and nothing had never been normal. All that had changed when her family had been torn from her, and then just when she had been putting the pieces back together, everything had gone straight to hell again. But Grace was a strong girl and always had been, but still there was only so much a girl could take especially after one found out-

"It's going to get worse."

Mary's voice broke her out of her reverie.

"What?"

"You had another one just this week, didn't you?" Mary sat down carefully on the bed beside her. Grace closed herself off but she couldn't block Mary out completely. The older girl placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Grace, you've built up an immunity to the potion."

"I can deal with it," she insisted stubbornly.

"_Gracie_," Mary's use of her nickname forced Grace to look at her. "You're not going to be dealing with it for much longer unless you listen to me."

"I know the god damn healer outlined all my options –"

"Except for one."

Something about Mary's tone stopped Gracie mid-rant.

"Look," Mary began, nervously wringing her hands. "I – er- kind of did some of my own research, well, not really my research per se but I talked to Ophelia."

Grace stood up so quickly that she almost lost her balance again.

"You talked to _that_ nut case?" she snarled. "About _my_ case!"

"She's better now!" Mary retorted. "And she used to be your friend!"

"That was before I found out that she murdered my mother!" Grace reminded her.

"It wasn't her fault." But even though Mary was right, it didn't make it hurt any less. Ophelia had only been acting under the imperius curse but she had unwillingly played a part in the betrayal that led to the murder of everyone in the Adams family. Lily's version of the events had been deliberately vague when it came to the part Ophelia played, but after a sobbing, half delirious, and intoxicated Ophelia paid Grace a visit in the middle of the night near the end of her stay at St. Mungo's to apologize, Grace was forced to hear every last detail. She agreed to accept the apology and forgive her just to make the frightening apparition go away. Security had had to come and literally tear Ophelia off of her, dragging her kicking and screaming away to the psychiatric ward where she then spent a lengthy amount of time for what was deemed a nervous breakdown.

"I don't care whether or not it was her fault. She's a loose cannon that shouldn't be anywhere near this."

"You're right," Mary agreed nodding. "But she wants to make amends for what she did to you. She has to. And she's the only one that's brilliant and intuitive enough to understand all of Rohan's research and notes and where he might have gone with it if he had lived."

That stilled Gracie. Rohan, Lily's old boyfriend that had been murdered because he had tried to help them, was the only one that had done any extensive research on the side effects and reversal of the dark curse that had taken the life of his grandfather, the former Minister of Magic, and had nearly claimed Grace's life as well. It was because of Rohan's work in the field that Gracie was still breathing.

"You're brilliant why don't you read them?" Gracie asked, but she already knew what was coming.

"Ophelia and Rohan were two very different people but they were on the same wavelength."

Grace snorted, because Rohan was about as odd as Ophelia was normal.

"Intellectually," Mary corrected herself. "Intellectually they were on the same wave length."

Grace shook her head in disbelief, but again she couldn't completely disagree with Mary. Both Ravenclaws had excelled in almost every subject at Hogwarts and it was only because of their urge to more extensively pursue other branches of magic that withheld them from the top of their class.

"Grace, I'm not telling you to take her up on her offer, all I'm asking is for you to consider it. I met with her the other day to look over the proposal. If she could just run a few more tests…"

"More tests!" Grace wanted nothing more to do with these "tests".

"By golly, Gracie, just listen to what I'm saying!" Mary was practically shouting now. "The healers they can't stop this. Eventually they're going to put you in a magically induced coma."

Grace stopped in her tracks, horrified.

"Seriously?" she gasped.

"It extended the Minister's life for several weeks…" Mary pointed out.

There was no way in hell that Gracie was going to let them put her in a magically induced coma for several weeks. She'd already lost too much and more than enough time.

"Fine, fill me in," she said, sitting down and folding her arms of her chest. "I'm listening now."

Mary hesitated.

"You're not going to like it," she admitted.

"Just tell me."

Mary was right. Grace didn't like it. She hated it.

* * *

It was dark by the time Grace was released back into the care of Sirius. She was unusually quiet and so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she barely noticed the odd silence of her companion. They exited St. Mungo's and had almost reached the apparation point in the alley next door when Sirius reached for her hand.

Instead of apparating, he pulled her in close.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Fine," she insisted, but her voice wasn't much more than a whisper. He brought his other hand up to the side of her face as if he were expecting to find physical proof of the injury that was weighing her down. But the problem wasn't physical but internal. She was keeping secrets from him, but she wasn't the only one that was hiding something.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked, frowning. "You're acting as if someone died."

Someone had died, but it wasn't the dead girl that he was grieving for. He slid his hand to her neck, resting his thumb over the pulse point. And even though it still beat steadily he knew that he was already losing her. He remembered what Eddie had said, hell, he'd witnessed with his own eyes what that monster Wilkes had done to Gracie and Rohan. If it was true, nothing was going to stop Evan Wilkes from hurting Grace Adams again. Nothing.

"Oh Merlin, someone did die! Who was it Sirius?" Grace asked her alarm growing.

"Athena Jones," he said dully.

He lifted his eyes from her pulse point and met her gaze. Her eyes were still that same bright blue and they held so much emotion in that moment that it was impossible to think of that light ever being distinguished.

"C'mere," he whispered.

He folded her into his arms, pulling her tightly against his body. He could feel her heart beating and he decided right then and there that he'd do anything to keep it that way. He'd keep her safe. And so would the Potters and Lily and all of the other people that loved her. Already he was feeling better. Athena Jones had been a warning but now Sirius knew and he'd keep an eye on her. No one was going to hurt her, not while he was still breathing.

* * *

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Evan Wilkes opened his eyes and stared up at the ornate ceiling of the unplottable mansion that he'd inherited on his seventeenth birthday. It was no use. He could not sleep, not while she still breathed. He sat up, perching on the edge of the ivory sofa that still served as a centerpiece in the family's best parlor, though only Evan lived there now. He faced the fireplace and the large gilded frame that held the family portrait. His parents stared down at him with the same grey eyes that he'd inherited. He was also in the frame but he was only a babe and even though they had the same eyes, he couldn't recognize himself. He hated the painting because it was all he had left of his parents and yet for whatever reason the figures in the painting stopped speaking to him as soon as their lives were extinguished. His father's last words had been for him to avenge his mother's death and even though her murderer was dead, Evan hadn't been the one to kill her.

It felt wrong that Evan had been the one that had pushed for the destruction of the Adams family and not only did Gracie survive twice but some crazy girl under the imperius curse got to accidentally kill her mother.

He thought that leaving Gracie an orphan might be enough. But it wasn't enough. He needed her. But every time he turned around it seemed that there was some new friend or family member swooping in to save her. They'd be all over her as soon as word got out about what he done to the Jones girl. He would've enjoyed taking them all on but Evan couldn't possibly kill all of them especially now that the Dark Lord had an agenda of his own that didn't involve the weapon that the Adams family had been practically sitting on.

He stood up and began pacing, perhaps he didn't have to track down and kill all of them. Maybe there was another way to get to her…

* * *

**A/N: Thanks to everyone that reviewed! Sorry, I haven't been able to write lately but this has been on my hard drive for months and months. I don't plan on this to be anywhere near the length of I'll Fight For You and I'm hoping to have it done in 10 chapters or less. The next chapter has been done for months and just needs to be cleaned up so let me know what you think and hopefully I'll post it soon! Also I have another unrelated Lily and James story that I was thinking of posting if anyone's interested.**


	4. You Can't Run

**I'll Wait For You**

**By Hazelmist**

**Summary: This is a sequel/spin off of my Lily and James story I'll Fight For You but it's going to focus more on Grace Adams and her relationship with Sirius Black. I highly recommend you read I'll Fight For You first or you'll be very confused. If you want a summary, look at the top of the prologue chapter. In the prologue, Grace, James, Evan Wilkes, Sirius and Lily are all eleven and have yet to start Hogwarts. The first chapter jumps six years ahead to the winter holiday of their Seventh Year, several months after the conclusion of I'll Fight For You. A New Years Eve party in muggle London ends disastrously when Evan Wilkes decides to murder Athena Jones and send a message to Gracie. After taking Gracie to St. Mungos for tests the next morning, Sirius accidentally stumbles upon the real truth behind Athena Jones murder and the connection to Gracie that Mary Pewter, Edgar Bones, and the Aurors are keeping from the general public. Faced with the fact that Evan Wilkes is still alive and out to get Gracie, he completely misses the secret about her condition that Grace is keeping from him and everyone else. Mary offers an alternative but Gracie is hesitant about taking her up on her offer when she finds out what it is and that Ophelia Lovegood is involved. This chapter jumps ahead again several months to the spring of their seventh and final year at Hogwarts.**

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except for maybe Gracie, Mary, Oliver and Ophelia. **

**A/N: I wrote this part of the story first so I'm very excited to hear what you guys think of it. Sorry it wasn't up as soon as I thought, the holiday kind of threw me off.**

* * *

**Chapter Three: You Can't Run**

**April 1977**

He found the two lovebirds just outside of , just like he knew he would. They'd been so wrapped up in each other and themselves that it was almost too easy to find them. The alley was dark, but he could just make out the pair of them embracing as if this was the last time they'd be able to do so. Well, it would be, if he had anything to do with it.

"I only want to keep you safe," the young man kept whispering. "Is that too much to ask?"

"Me?" the girl laughed. "What about you? You're the one that's always walking into danger."

"It's kind of my job," the boy admitted sheepishly.

"I know," the girl laughed, "And I love you for it."

Instead of lightening the mood, the half playful exchange seemed to have the opposite effect. The boy curled a lock of her hair around his finger.

"I love you," he said, just loud enough for the onlooker to hear. "And I want you to be careful – don't look at me like that I know what you've been up to and if the wrong person were to find out-" his voice dropped so low that their onlooker almost failed to catch what was said. But when he did, he knew he'd come to the right place.

"Okay," the girl whispered. "I'll be careful."

"That's all I ask, goodnight." He kissed her and then he was gone.

The girl leaned back against the wall of the alley, weak kneed from the kiss and needing a moment to recollect herself. It would be her downfall.

She never saw him coming until it was too late.

"You can't run from me." Laughing he caught her before she'd run more than a couple of feet. He clapped a hand over her mouth, silencing the scream in her throat. She fought him, biting down hard on the hand that muffled her but this only made him giggle with pleasure. It'd been a long time since he'd had one that actually fought back. He'd take his time with her.

"Don't worry," he panted in her ear as his excitement grew, "you'll have all night to scream for me."

As soon as they apparated back to the mansion she started to run.

* * *

_She didn't understand how it began or when it began, but it always ended up like this: blue skies, green grass, the sound of familiar laughter in her ears, and the thrill of the chase before her. _

_She ran. _

_It was so warm that she had discarded her cloak. Sunlight warmed her face and her bare arms as she chased the shaggy black dog through the grass. Laughter rang out from somewhere behind her. She longed to look over her shoulder to steal one last lingering glance at the young woman with tired brown eyes and her mother's smile. But she didn't look back, she would always regret that. _

_She ran on. Soon she lost sight of the dog, but she kept running. The sun slid behind the clouds and shadows blanketed the earth. Still she stumbled onward, slipping and sliding through the grass. The gently sloping hills had suddenly become steep and muddy. Her feet scrambled for a foothold, her arms swung out groping for that sense of balance and gracefulness that came so naturally to her. She caught herself, but it was too late. She had already fallen into a trap. _

_Suddenly there were snakes everywhere. They were on all sides. Black ones with red eyes, reared up before her hissing. She spun around desperately, but green ones with blank eyes the color of molten silver slithered in closer, locking her in place. Their forked tongues struck out at her and they opened their mouths wide, revealing sharp fangs. She was surrounded on all sides. There was no escaping them. _

_She reached for her wand. _

"_Your wand won't help you this time," a voice laughed when she realized that it was missing. _

_She looked up into the pair of cold steely grey eyes and the cloaked figure that had replaced the hissing chorus of snakes. Half of his face was scarred from a boiling curse but she immediately recognized the young man with the deranged smile. He raised his wand. The fear slammed into her chest so hard that she gasped for breath. She rode the rush of adrenaline, raising her fists in preparation to punch, kick, bite, scratch, and do whatever was necessary, but a voice shattered her concentration. _

"_Gracie!" _

_Grace froze as cold fear gripped her and held her in place. She could handle anything - slimy snakes, poisonous fangs, brutal sadistic Slytherins - but not this. _

_She didn't have to turn around; she already knew who and what was coming. Here came the hurried footsteps on the grass, the blazing brown eyes, the taunts that would drive them both over the edge and finally –_

"_MUM! NO!" she yelled as the Slytherin smirked at Gracie and aimed his wand at her mother. _

"_Adflictacius!" _

_Grace was already in motion, throwing herself in front of her mother and into the path of the curse. The pain slashed through her like a knife. It was so intense that she screamed. She kept screaming, and screaming, unaware of anything other than the pain until a clammy hand was clapped over her mouth and her eyes dragged open. _

"_Look at me you lioness bitch," the Slytherin spoke in her ear in a tone that might have been reserved for a lover, if it hadn't been for the mad look in his steely grey eyes and the way he smiled when she whimpered in pain. He lifted her wrist so that she could see what he wanted her to notice. _

_There was a glowing hand cuff emblazoned on both of her wrists, binding them together. He picked up the chain attached to the cuffs, and wrapped it tightly around his own wrist. The tighter the chain was bound, the more pain Grace felt. _

"_Stop. STOP!" she begged as the burning sensation became so strong that she started to lose consciousness. Everything hurt. Everything was burning: her wrists, her arms, her head, her skin, her racing heart, her sick stomach, her throat, her mouth, her heaving chest, her hands – The Slytherin took her shaking hands in his own, and then to her disgust he bent to claim her mouth with his cold, wet lips. _

"_We're bound," he whispered. "You're mine now, you lioness bitch, you're mine." _

_Grace used the last of her waning strength to twist her head away from a kiss that reeked of death and kick him with all her might. He cried out, and the pain in her wrists doubled. _

"_You'll pay for that you stupid slag!"_

_The chain pulled her back to him as the darkness finally swallowed her up. _

Grace Adams woke with a stifled scream. She scrambled to sit up, breathing hard. The familiar sight of the four poster bed and her Seventh Year dormitory left her with a dizzying sense of relief. She sank back down into the pillows, trying to catch her breath. Her heart rate refused to slow and her hands still trembled as if she could feel the cuffs burning into her wrists. She swiped at her forehead and the back of her hand came back damp with sweat.

She had to get out of here. Kicking off the tangled ball of sheets, she reached under the bed for the smooth wooden handle of her most treasured possession. She smiled when she found the broom where she'd left it and tiptoed across the room.

Grace stole a peek over her shoulder, checking to make sure that her roommates were still sound asleep. Of course they were, she could hear Tiffany's snores rumbling through the room and Alice could probably sleep through an earthquake. The banshee never slept in her own bed anymore. It was Lily that worried her, but Lily's bed was empty just like every other night. Sometimes she forgot that Lily had been made Head Girl and had been given her own private quarters with her boyfriend who just happened to be the Head Boy. Grace smirked as she hoisted the broom over her shoulder and sat down in the window seat. It was funny how things worked out for Lily and James. If you had asked Grace Adams two years ago if she thought the pair would wind up together, she would have confidently bet you one thousand galleons that it would never happen. But last year so much had changed. James had grown up and Lily had opened her eyes. Even Grace was surprised at how much happier they seemed now that they were together.

Grace had changed too, in more ways than she would have liked to acknowledge. The nightmares were only the beginning. She fumbled with the latch and flung open the window. A gust of wind blew into the room and she embraced it with both arms. The air was cooling on her feverish forehead and cold enough to elicit a shiver, but it simply wasn't enough. Her heart raced and her sweating palms trembled with a consistency that she would never get used too. The need to fly, though, now _that_ was something she was familiar with. Grinning, she grasped the broom between both hands and crawled on to it. She flew outside, pausing only for a moment to aim a well placed spell at the window so that it shut soundlessly behind her.

It wasn't ideal flying conditions. With it being well past the witching hour and the full moon hidden behind a thick layer of storm clouds, Grace had to wait several minutes before her eyes fully adjusted to the darkness. It was misting too, just enough so that a few rebellious strands of her normally straight hair started to curl and stick to her forehead. The wind restlessly tugged at her broom if her hold on the handle got too lax, but that was all right, because right now Grace wanted to fight with something. For now, the wind would suffice.

She soared upward, circling the castle over and over again until it was no larger than a dollhouse. She rode her broom hard, fighting heavy eye lids and limbs that trembled with exhaustion and weakness that she refused to acknowledge. She forced the broom to go higher and higher until she almost lost sight of the castle altogether. Only then, when the air hurt her lungs to breathe in and her body began to shiver uncontrollably, did she finally halt the broom's progress. The wind was stronger, whipping her hair into her eyes. But it was all right. When she hunched over the broomstick, clawing at her chest and gasping for breath, the sound of her choked cry was swallowed up by the howling of the wind.

* * *

Hours later she woke to a pounding headache and the feel of a wet tongue on her face. Something was licking her. She could feel the press of a cold wet nose, against her cheek. Compared to the splitting head ache she had, it almost felt pleasant even if it was some wild animal that was probably preparing her for dinner. She breathed in and immediately wished she hadn't. The air reeked of wet dog and the illusion was immediately shattered.

"Ger off me!" she groaned, batting at the dog's head. The big black dog stepped back with its tail wagging hopefully. She was almost certain that it was the same dumb mutt that had stolen her sandwich and had almost gotten her and Lily killed last April, along with her mother. He'd been following her around a lot lately.

_Her mother_. She closed her eyes again, holding her hand to her head. It felt like it was going to explode. Noticing, the dog whined and pushed its muzzle into her neck.

"Go away!"

But the dog ignored her this time and started barking obnoxiously. Grace felt each bark reverberate through her aching head.

"Shut up!" she ordered, cursing as she sat up. The dog shut up and nipped at her sleeve. Grace vaguely wondered if it was going to bite her, but she was too weak and tired to fend him off. Besides, there was something frighteningly familiar about that dog. She suspected that it had something to do with his brown eyes. The dog didn't bite her. He took the sleeve of her soaked robe gently between his teeth and helped her to sit up.

"Thanks," she murmured, propping herself up against the tree. The storm had broken some time during the early hours of the morning and now the sky was a pale shade of grey. She still had plenty of time to sneak back into the castle, if she could manage to walk a straight line.

She lowered her head, resting it against her knees, and tried to think past the head ache. What the hell had happened? Had she crashed her broomstick again? She must've. Her clothes were soaked through and smeared with mud. And her head… She reached up to touch her temple and her hand came away sticky and tainted red.

The dog whined again, and she felt his tongue in her hair this time. He was cleaning her wound and even though it was disgusting, Grace found that she didn't mind it as much as she should have. She ignored the dog for the moment and tried to focus on a spell that would close it up and get rid of her massive head ache. Unfortunately, though she had been forced to improve, she still sucked when it came to performing healing charms. Lily was the one that was always quick with a healing charms for a mild quidditch injury, the result of backfiring spells, exploding potions, or some of the more memorable but not skillfully executed Marauder pranks. Dating a healer in training for a couple of months last year had only improved her methods. Grace winced at the thought of Lily's last boyfriend, and had to push the dog aside so that she could sit back and pull herself together.

"I don't suppose you know any healing charms, do you?" she demanded of him. The dog glared back at her as if he didn't find her question funny at all. Yes, there was definitely something about his eyes that irked her.

"Come here," she told the dog, patting her leg. When he eagerly invaded her space again, Grace put a hand on his back and used him for leverage. She was grateful that the dog stayed in place and relieved when she found that her broom was still in her free hand and all in one piece. Thank, Merlin. Hovering on a broomstick required even less effort than walking. Besides, she didn't think she could suffer the humiliation from James and the rest of the Quidditch team when she had to come up with another lame excuse for how she had destroyed her second broom in two months. Sirius Black, the team's best beater and her cousin's best mate, would probably tease her mercilessly and never let her live it down. He was such an insufferable git.

The dog growled low in his throat.

"I agree, he's a complete bastard," Grace said, nodding. Great, now she was talking to dogs. The dog eyed her worriedly as she swung her leg over the broomstick. He growled again, louder this time and tried to nip at her leg, but Grace was already airborne.

"Go home," she ordered the dog tiredly. Keeping low to the ground and steering it toward the castle, she clung to the broomstick and hoped that she wouldn't lose consciousness again in midair. The last thing she needed was for Lily to find out or –

"BLACK!"

Sirius Black had appeared almost out of thin air barely a foot in front of her. She swerved to avoid him, but not fast enough. He grasped the tail of her broomstick before she could pull up and out of his reach. She felt the broom dragging to a stop, despite her urgings for it to go higher.

"Let go of the broom!" she protested, trying to muster the strength to turn around and hit him. But she was terrified that if she let go, she'd lose control and they'd both fall.

"Let me on! Quick!" he hissed in her ear.

"No!" But Grace didn't have much of a choice. He had already swung himself up behind her. She felt a pair of muscular arms encircle her waist and she shivered. Her arms were already weak, her hands unsteady; but when she felt his warm breath on her neck she completely lost her ability to steer. She tried to ignore the fact that she was losing control by foolishly making the broom go faster.

Fortunately, the git responsible for her sudden lack of coordination had already anticipated this. Maybe he was a little too familiar with the strange effect he had on young women, or maybe he was simply aware of the effect that he had on _her_, but his hands were already in motion. His body curled around hers, his hands moving from her waist to cover her trembling knuckles gripping the broomstick.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, shrilly. The branches of a squat dog wood tree snagged at their legs, but the broom violently jerked to the left, bringing them safely out of the way of the rest of the trees. Where had those trees come from? She was so disoriented.

"Steering us in the right direction," he answered, as he readjusted his hands on the broomstick handle and took over for her. "The castle is this way, not over there, and if I let you steer we would probably crash into another tree. I can't let that happen because I have a very demanding fan club and they would be inconsolable if anything were to happen to this handsome face."

Grace rolled her eyes. He couldn't be serious, but he was _Sirius_.

"It's your own fault," she pointed out.

"I know, but now that James has been snatched up by Lily, I've been elected Hogwart's Most Eligible Bachelor." Grace snorted, as he continued solemnly, "You can understand the responsibility that I have now. Not only do I have to look out for my own adoring fans but I have to see to James's former fans as well."

"For Merlin's sake, I was talking about – oh, never mind," she groaned, wondering why she bothered arguing with him, especially now when her head was still aching and every inch of her body was screaming for her bed.

"Just relax," he whispered, stroking one of her hands as he switched the position of his hands again. Again, she found herself listening to him, though it was the last thing she wanted to do. As her muscles loosened she found that Sirius Black's warm torso was an almost acceptable substitute for her beloved bed. She sagged against him, her eyes sliding shut.

"_Alohomora_."

She forced her eyes open again in time to see the castle doors yawning and stretching to receive them. They closed loudly behind them and the sound seemed to echo over and over again through the empty hallways that stretched before them.

They chased the last remnants of the echo, flying through the vacant corridors.

"What are we –"

But Sirius shushed her, gently pushing her body down with his own as they passed beneath a particularly low archway. He kept his arm around her, using the other hand to steer the broom down the winding labyrinth of corridors. Grace tried to blame the butterflies in her stomach on the excitement of their reckless flight. She had always secretly wanted to fly through the castle, though, it would've been foolish with all the students and professors running amuck, but at this hour the corridors were deserted. Under any other circumstance perhaps it would have been exhilarating, but Grace was still feeling ill. She knew that any moment she was going to pass out and she didn't think she would be able to forgive herself if she fainted into Sirius Black's arms. His body was warm and comfortable, but he was still a git.

"Black, the dormitory was back that way."

"Duly noted, Adams, but we're going to the infirmary."

"NO!"

Her voice came out louder than she intended, ricocheting off the stone walls. There was no way in hell that she was going to see Madam Pomfrey. She'd had enough hospitals, healers, and infirmaries to last her for the rest of her life. She wrestled with him for control of the broom, catching him by surprise. The broom spun around so fast that it almost crashed into the statue of Butterby the Drinker. Sirius swore and fought to regain control of her broomstick.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?"

"Turning us around!"

"Are you mad? You've been bleeding all over my favorite shirt. We're going to Madam Pomfrey!" His hands were as hot and firm as his voice as they covered hers and stubbornly redirected the path of the broomstick. He never made it to the infirmary, though, nor did they make it to the dormitories. Sirius cursed again and pulled the broomstick to a screeching halt.

Argus Filch was blocking their path with a mop. The caretaker's filthy face broke into a wide grin.

"Gotcha."

Grace groaned and closed her eyes. Great, just fucking great.

"I was bringing her to the infirmary," Sirius explained hastily. "She hit her head." But Filch was rubbing his hands together excitedly at the prospect of his latest catch: Hogwart's biggest troublemaker. Grace made a mental note to start hanging out with guys who weren't at the top of Filch's Most Wanted List.

"Doesn't matter where you were going, there's no flying in the corridors. Professor McGonagall won't be pleased to hear-"

"Faint," Sirius whispered in her ear.

Grace cursed him under her breath - this was all his fault - but she didn't need to be told twice. With an exaggerated moan, she slumped over and slid off the broomstick. Sirius played his part too. He caught her before she hit the floor, snapping something at Filch as he cradled her swooning body against his chest. Grace had to remind herself that this was just an act on his part. Filch grumbled something back as Grace's entire body went limp in Sirius's arms.

"Nicely done," he complimented her softly.

Grace squinted up into his face for the second time that morning. She saw those same mischievous brown eyes that irked her and noticed that his cheek was smeared with something reddish bronze. It was her blood. Sirius hated the sight of other people's blood, but he was smiling down at her as he gingerly held her bloody matted hair against his shirt. How odd.

She closed her eyes again and passed out in his arms.

* * *

"You know when I told you to faint, I didn't mean for you to actually _faint_," Sirius laughed, shaking his head in amusement.

Grace glared at Sirius Black as she sat up in the hospital bed. She was back in the infirmary and he was seated in the chair by her bedside, grinning. She was not happy. She hated this place and it was his fault that she was stuck here.

"I can't believe you brought me here."

"You passed out, remember," Sirius said, stating the obvious.

"I told you that I didn't want to –"

"What was I supposed to do with Filch watching us?" he interrupted, his grin fading.

"You didn't give a rat's arse about Filch. You collect detentions like you do women," she snapped. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Sirius, to her surprise, blinked as if he couldn't believe she had just said that out loud and looked away. It was the truth, of course, but it wasn't something they normally discussed, especially after what happened last Halloween and New Years Eve… Grace was determined to block these memories from her mind. They never spoke about it, and they never would. Sirius, however, was unwilling to let it go this time, for he rose to defend himself.

"I knew that_ you_ would care if you got a detention. And I knew that you were hurt. You'll have to forgive me for wanting to make sure that you didn't bleed to death." He stood up abruptly and made to leave. Grace felt her heart clench painfully at the thought of him leaving her alone with Madam Pomfrey, and the white walls, and the nightmarish recollections of the four months that she had spent in and out of St. Mungo's last summer. She swallowed her pride.

"Sirius – wait!" She reached out and caught his wrist. He looked down at her hand and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I just – you know that after – after – when my mom died and Rohan – that I –"

The stammered apology had the desired effect on Sirius. His face softened and he sat back down in the chair by her bedside as if he had just been scolded. She drew back her hand and fidgeted with the creased bed sheets instead as the words continued to tumble from her lips.

"I spent months cooped up in St. Mungo's , you know, and now I can't stand being in there or in here for any length of time. I hate it."

Sirius leaned forward and touched her arm. Her hands froze, her words came to a stuttering halt, and she looked up at him.

"I know, Gracie," he said, holding her gaze. His fingers curled around her arm, holding on to her. The look in his brown eyes was so different, so solemn, and so serious that for a moment she wondered if he really did know. Grace wondered if it was pity, but everyone looked at her with those pitying eyes and that nervous twitch of a sympathetic smile. Grace had seen that uncomfortable "I'm sorry" stamped across more than enough faces to recognize it in all its gruesome forms. She was almost certain that what was in Sirius's brown eyes wasn't pity but something else entirely.

"You're – you're really strong, you know that?" he whispered.

Grace's breath caught in her throat. It was such a simple generic compliment, such a silly compliment. But she couldn't brush it away so easily, not when it was coming from Sirius Black. She gazed back at him, drinking in his usually mischievous brown eyes and the mouth that was constantly parted in a wide grin. His cheek was still smudged with her blood. He hated the sight of other people's blood. She licked her thumb and held it to the side of his face. He jumped a little as if he had been startled but he didn't pull away.

"Hold still," she whispered. "You've got something on your cheek."

She carefully rubbed the spot out, until his smooth skin returned to a more purer hue. She let her hand fall, allowing her fingers to brush down his cheek bones and the line of his jaw.

"Grace." She slowly lifted her eyes to his. His hand tightened on her arm and her heart beat quickened. "Gracie," he said, softer this time. Grace leaned closer to him, wanting nothing more than to hear him say her name again. Sirius lowered his head, letting his thick black hair graze her forehead. She stilled, remembering what it felt like to curl her fingers into his hair, remembering how he had whispered her name just like _that_, remembering how drunk they'd been, remembering, remembering, remembering -

"Mr. Black!" a shrill voice startled them both apart. Grace moved away and Sirius sat back in his chair as Madam Pomfrey burst through the curtains. "I told you to leave over an hour ago."

"Oh, really?" Sirius asked, giving the woman an innocent smile. "It must've slipped my mind."

"I need to check up on my patient, now, and you need to leave," she said looking at him pointedly. Sirius winked at Grace and folded his arms over his chest as he addressed Madam Pomfrey, as if he had no intention of leaving.

"Can't I stay for that?"

"The check up?"

Sirius's grin widened. Grace narrowed her eyes at him, knowing exactly what his hormone filled teenage brain was thinking. Merlin's beard, he could be so insufferable. Madam Pomfrey responded to his cheeky remark by screaming at him and physically shooing him from the room. Grace was sad to see him go, even if he was a complete git, because now there was nothing standing between her and Madam Pomfrey.

"What happened this time?" the older witch demanded, bracing her hands on her hips.

"Nothing, I fell down," Grace said, shrugging. Madam Pomfrey narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but for once Grace was telling the truth, or at least part of it. She had fallen, she just neglected to mention the fact that she'd fallen off her broom… after she crashed into a tree. She also deliberately left out the important part explaining why Gryffindor's reportedly best flyer lost control of her broomstick yet again.

Madam Pomfrey leveled her with that trademark glare that made eighteen-year-old boys twice her size quail. Grace Adams, though, was not one easily intimidated. In the past two years she had lost nearly everything, including the sane part of her mind that would've warned her to back off at this point.

"I have classes," she told the woman, sliding out of bed. She was surprised when her feet hit the cool tiles solidly, ready to support her weight. Not that it would've deterred her; she would've rather crawled back to the dormitory on her belly than stay in any place that had white beds and smelled of healing potions.

"I don't recall giving you permission to go," Madam Pomfrey said, barely disguising the threat in her voice. She already had her wand out and Grace bit back an angry retort before the woman stunned her. She'd done it before.

"I'm sorry Madam Pomfrey," she said, treading more carefully now. "I thought that you had finished your examination."

"I have Ms. Adams."

"And?" Grace gripped the bed post hard, resisting the urge to make a run for it. No sudden moves, she reminded herself.

"I healed the nasty scrape you got on your scalp when you _fell_. You have other scrapes and bruises, but nothing that won't heal on its own after a few days. Physically, you seem fine, but I think, considering your _condition_-"

Grace clenched her jaw and willed herself to stare at a spot just over the woman's left ear. It didn't matter how or why it began, everything always came back to what happened on that damn day. As if losing them once wasn't hard enough, she was reminded of it day after day and night after night -

"This isn't the first time this has happened, has it Ms. Adams? Ms. Adams?"

Grace blinked, coming back to herself. Madam Pomfrey was looking her over with concern.

"Grace, are you all right?" It was always a bad thing when the school nurse got on a first name basis with you or when she exchanged rage and wrath for concern and pity.

"Fine," Grace insisted. Relaxing her grip on the bed post, she forced her gaze back to Madam Pomfrey's, using her best phony smile. "I'm just really stressed out about N.E.W.T.s and graduation," she lied smoothly. "I haven't been sleeping much because I keep having this dream that I'll fail all my N.E.W.T.s and won't graduate," she continued, giving the nurse a wide-eyed look. "You understand Madam Pomfrey, don't you?"

"Of course, Grace." But her tone said that she could still use some convincing. Grace pretended to fiddle anxiously with her hands and then started rambling before the woman could get another word in.

"I just don't want to miss any more classes. I'm already way behind everyone else and good golly there's just so much I have to think about! What subjects should I study more for? And afterwards what should I do? Do I want to work for the Ministry? What department would I work for? Should I become an Auror like my parents? But it's such a dangerous job, I don't think I have it in me to be that brave. But being an Auror would be fun probably. And then there's healing, I bet healing's a very interesting job, but I don't like potions much and I suppose that that's very important for someone that's a healer. Healers have to be brilliant, I imagine, from the ones that I've met, and I don't know if I'm brilliant. I admire you and your field for what you do on a daily basis, it can't be easy." She stopped to suck in a breath before continuing rapidly, "Oh, good God, I have to get back to class. Thanks, so much, Madam Pomfrey for listening!"

She gave the healer a sunny smile and slipped past the sturdy woman, heading for the door. By the time Madam Pomfrey recovered from her confusion and realized what the manipulative Gryffindor had been doing, Grace Adams was already running down the hallway in her bare feet and ridiculous hospital gown.

She would've kept running all the way back to the dormitory if a hand hadn't reached out and seized her arm.

Grace barely had time to curse before she was yanked out of the corridor and pushed into an alcove. The tapestry swirled around her and her captor, enveloping them in shadows. Grace pivoted, wrenching her arm from his grasp and slammed into a very solid chest.

"What in Merlin's name – Black!" she groaned when she recognized the glittering brown eyes in the shadows of the alcove and the perfect set of pearly whites that flashed in that irritating grin of his. "What are you doing?"

"Thought you could use a hand," he replied, his grin widening as he looked her over appraisingly. She felt her face flush. "You do realize that you're already half naked."

Grace reached for her wand to hex his balls off but her wand was gone of course – along with her clothes.

"Shit!" Grace slapped the side her own head instead of Sirius's. She'd left them in the infirmary and now she'd have to go back and face the wrath of Pomfrey.

Sirius chuckled, a pleasant low sound that she physically felt rumbling through his chest. Suddenly, she was reminded of how close they were standing. Of course of all the hundreds of alcoves all over Hogwarts he had to drag her into the smallest one.

"I thought you'd make a break for it which is why I took your clothes."

"You took my clothes!" Grace sputtered, clenching her hands into fists. Of all the stupid, idiotic, moronic, perverted things Sirius Black had done, this was an all time low.

"Well, yea, I figured it'd be harder for her to find you if you were wearing something a little more-" he trailed off, demonstrating what he meant by plucking at the flimsy fabric of her gown a little too close to her chest. Grace hated the way her body automatically responded to his touch.

"Hands off, Black," she growled low in her throat, trying to quell the impulse to let him grope her and _then_ beat the living shit out of him."Give me back my clothes," she demanded through gritted teeth. He chuckled again and Grace felt the repercussions again in her own chest. His breath fanned out across her face as he leaned into her. She shivered but held her ground.

"What if I don't want to give them back?" he whispered with that maddening grin of his.

Grace was rendered speechless – whether from rage or from his close proximity, she wasn't sure. It took her a few precious seconds before she was able to figure out how to breathe again. She swallowed hard, raising her hands to his broad chest. Her hands fisted in the material of his shirt, roughly yanking him forward so that his body was flush against hers. His nose touched hers, his thick black hair tumbling over his forehead and onto hers. He smelt of fresh air and like the Quidditch pitch did after days of rain. Gracie breathed it in, half closing her eyes.

"Black."

"Adams?" his voice was soft and his eyes were dark, too dark. She could feel every muscle of his body, taut and tense against hers. It made her weak. She could not afford another weakness.

"Give. Me. My. Clothes." Her voice came out in a slow but steady hiss as she shoved him hard against the wall of the alcove. "Before I decide to hurt you."

Sirius blinked, once, twice, three times. There was an unreadable expression on his face. He looked almost as if he had just woken up from a dream. She kept her hands pressed hard against his chest, pinning him there. She was surprised when one of his hands came up to gently catch her wrist, but relieved when his mischievous grin finally made its return with his rude distasteful humor.

"That's okay, sweetheart," he told her, winking, "I like it rough."

Sirius Black left the alcove with a black eye.

Grace Adams got her clothes back.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Grace hurried into the Great Hall, just in time to grab a quick lunch before her second class. She expected Lily, or Tiffany, or someone to inquire why she skived off class or where she had been that morning, or perhaps why Sirius Black was sporting a black eye. But the Great Hall was buzzing with the sound of muted whispers and hushed solemn tones. The Gryffindor table was overflowing with students, not just from Gryffindor but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as well. Grace had to force Keith Abbott and half the Hufflepuff quidditch team to slide down the bench just so that she could squeeze in next to her friends.

"Hey," Grace said, nudging Lily. She was about to ask her if she could steal a look at her Potions notes, when the words died in her throat. Lily looked worse than she did, and Lily hadn't spent the night fighting nightmares and smashing into trees. Her green eyes were red rimmed and puffy. She had been crying.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder. Lily bit her lip and looked past Gracie to where the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had gathered around a group of weepy girls and white faced boys who suddenly looked years younger. Grace realized that most of them were in her year and the year below her. The nauseating PDA couple (6th Year Will Pewter and Lavinia Brown) was missing, Gracie noted. Perhaps they'd broken up and maybe now Will Pewter would focus on actually saving goals for the Gryffindor quidditch team instead of blowing kisses to his girlfriend Lavinia for half the game. She doubted that levelheaded Lily or anyone else for that matter would be upset by that.

"There's been another murder," Lily whispered in Gracie's ear, rattling her out of her thoughts about the upcoming quidditch match and the disgusting displays of affection of her classmates.

"What?" Grace's attention snapped back to Lily just as James slid silently into the seat beside them.

Grace caught a brief glimpse of James's exhausted face, before he turned and pulled Lily into a tight embrace. His face was lost in her auburn hair, but Alice's quivering voice was there to fill in the blanks when Gracie demanded an answer.

"Mary Pewter was murdered last night."

Grace's heart plunged. The former Gryffindor and Head Girl had been a good friend of all of theirs, especially Lily and more recently Gracie. Her friendly freckled face had been quick to break into a smile or to offer up advice. She had been funny in her own quirky way, always saying "Good Golly!", changing the passwords on a daily basis, and teasing the former Head Boy Edgar Bones or her younger brother Will. Despite the fact that Mary had been assigned to Grace's case, Grace's most vivid memories of her were of the previous year, when Lily would frequently study with Mary, Eddie, Ophelia Lovegood, and Lily's last boyfriend Rohan Corner, and often dragged Gracie along. When Lily had been attacked on the train last year, Mary, along with Eddie, Ophelia and Rohan had been the first to come to her aid, and last year after Gracie herself had been nearly killed, Lily had told her how Mary had been amongst the group that came to rescue her after Wilkes –

Grace's throat constricted painfully. Without asking, she reached across the table and pried the _Daily Prophet _from Peter Pettigrew's chubby hands.

"Hey! I was reading that!" he whined, but Grace ignored him. She thumbed past the lingerie advertisement that Peter had been ogling, and continued scanning the paper until she arrived at the article focusing on Mary Pewter's death.

There wasn't much - the Ministry was doing its best to cover things up - but this particular reporter must've been ambitious and willing to push the limits, because there was in fact a suspect; the same suspect that was considered in the "accidental" death of young Rohan Corner.

The paper slipped out of her sweaty fingers and Sirius caught it before it landed in something sticky that Peter was eating. Their eyes met briefly and Sirius immediately flipped the paper around to see what she had been reading.

It was very difficult to breathe all of a sudden and she felt physically ill. She tried not to get emotional, but she desperately wanted to hit something.

"I'm sorry, Gracie," Tiffany whispered, touching her friend's hand, but Grace yanked her hand back as if it had been burned. She whipped around in her seat and her eyes swept over the Slytherin table. She searched for a pair of steely grey eyes, and that deranged smirk that she knew she wouldn't find.

Wilkes hadn't been seen or mentioned since the day he tried to kill her, taking Rohan's life instead. In fact, Grace had half hoped when he hadn't returned to school that maybe he'd been among the Death Eaters that Lily had inadvertently trapped and killed inside the mausoleum while it was collapsing. According to this reporter, though, he was still alive and well and just as insane and murderous as he had been last year. They were even claiming that Athena Jones, Hestia's sister, might be his work as well as a couple of other young girls that had vanished in the past few months. Grace's hands curled so tightly into fists that she could feel her nails drawing blood from her palm. She should have known he wasn't dead when he was so alive in her nightmares.

Peter let out a loud squeak of protest. Grace looked up in time to see Sirius furiously crumpling Peter's newspaper up and throwing it in the direction of the Slytherin table. Grace almost laughed when he hit her banshee of a roommate sitting between Mulciber and Zabini. Debby McLaggen cried out as if she had been mortally wounded and Grace almost grinned, almost. But when no one laughed, and no one scolded Sirius, reality struck her like an endless ammunition of wadded up newspapers. And it kept coming. The reporter's bluntly printed words flashed before her eyes, drawing up the ghost of Mary Pewter. She saw Wilkes leering at her as the rest of his victims followed. There was Rohan with his healing hands and special smile reserved for Lily; and there was her mother, young again and laughing in the sunlight of a final April morning. She knew there were more victims too; a father that caught her when she launched herself into his arms; and a little brother that liked to pull her hair and teased her mercilessly about her boyfriends when they sat together at the Gryffindor table.

A hand passed over her hair, and for a confused half moment, Grace actually thought that it might've been Chris. Of course, it wasn't. Her brother was dead, just like her father, and her mother, and Rohan, and now Mary Pewter. Sirius' hand moved to cup her elbow, hauling her up and out of her seat.

"Come on," he said hoarsely. Grace turned to look for Lily, but she and James had already gone off with their arms around each other. Alice looked as if she was going to cry again, but Frank was soothing her; and Tiffany had slid down the bench to whisper with Keith Abbot and some of Will Pewter's other friends.

Grace let Sirius drag her from the Great Hall and take her outside. It was chilly but the sun was warm when it broke free from the clouds. Sirius immediately loosened and yanked off his tie as he sat down on a flat boulder that overlooked the lake, but Grace couldn't sit still. She still had a strong desire to hit something. Ignoring Sirius's protest, she tripped down to the muddy bank and seized the largest rock she could hold in her hand. Pulling back her arm, she threw it as far as she could. It hit the water with a wet splash that shattered the glittering surface of the lake. But it wasn't enough. It was never enough. She grabbed another and another and another.

_Splash. Splash. _.

"Grace."

Something latched onto her arm and the rock in her other hand automatically came up, poised and ready to strike a new target.

"Grace STOP!" Sirius broke off in a string of profanities, knocking her hand aside. The jagged rock landed with a thump, somewhere in the underbrush behind him.

"Are you trying to give me another black eye?" he asked, touching the side of his head where the rock had just missed him. Grace made a strangled noise in the back of her voice that might have been a "Yes" or a "No" or a laugh or a sob. Neither one of them was sure; but Sirius took a risk and made another grab for her arm.

"Just sit down for a minute before you hurt yourself, and then I promise you can throw as many rocks at me as you want." He pulled her back to the rock with him.

Grace collapsed beside him, breathing hard. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and her face between her hands. Her hands were shaking and she was trembling all over.

"Breathe," Sirius murmured, passing his hand over her hair again. Grace closed her eyes at his touch, concentrating on the feel of his fingers combing through her hair. No matter how hard she tried though, she could not calm her nerves or get her breathing to slow.

"He's still out there," Grace finally blurted out. "Sirius, Wilkes is still alive and murdering -" She choked on her words and Sirius's fingers twisted in her hair as he pulled her tight against his side. His other arm came up and around to hold her there.

"Grace, you can't believe everything that you read in the _Daily Prophet_."

But this wasn't just about the article in the _Daily Prophet_! For a moment she thought of telling him everything. She contemplated telling him about the nightmares that plagued her, about Wilkes and what he had said to her, about what the healers had told her, about what Rohan had done, about how much trouble Mary had gone through for her…

"He won't come after you," he soothed her.

No, Wilkes wouldn't be coming after _her_. Not yet.

He'd save her for last.

Grace turned and buried her face into the crook of his neck. She breathed him in as his arms tightened around her. Her hands fisted in the back of his robe, as she held him closer. She didn't want to cry. There would be time for that later in the darkness of her room after she went to console Lily. Alice would cry herself to sleep for the next two weeks at least, and Gracie didn't want to think of the amount of tears that she and Tiffany would shed in private every time they heard her or looked at Lily and Mary's Head Girl badge. She would cry when no one else was around, but not now. What she needed right now was a distraction. She took another deep breath, focusing on the solid steady warmth of the body that she was trying to lose herself in.

"Did you mean it?" Grace asked Sirius.

"What?" Sirius's reply was muffled by her hair.

"Were you serious when you said that you'd let me throw rocks at you?" she asked curiously.

Sirius tensed; his fingers clenching in her hair.

"If it would make you feel better," he sighed, slowly relaxing his grip.

"It might," Grace teased him, playfully tugging on his ear. He felt her smirking against his neck. Sirius pulled away from her, tipping his head back with a short bark of a laugh.

"You are such a masochist," he accused her, leaning his forehead against hers.

"Mmm, perhaps, but I heard you like it rough," she quipped, touching the black eye that she'd given him earlier because he said that. Sirius inhaled sharply and her face softened.

"Does it hurt?" she asked him, tracing it gently.

"Like hell," he moaned, shutting his eyes.

"You're milking this."

"Is it working?" He grinned and cracked open his good eye. She rolled her eyes but a smile tugged at her lips.

"Did you want me to kiss it better?" she sighed in resignation.

"Could you?" He gave her those dreaded puppy dog eyes. Grace almost considered retracting her offer just because he knew how easily he could manipulate her and any other female with that lethal weapon. But just like every other woman, she caved.

"Close your eyes." He did as he was told and she gave him a feathery light kiss on the bruised skin. His breath hitched as she moved her head slightly to kiss the undamaged eyelid as well. It was only fair she decided. Besides, she noticed that the skin beneath that eye was almost as purple as the eye she had blacked. She suspected that if he found her at dawn, he probably hadn't slept at all last night.

As if to confirm her suspicions, his head dropped forward onto her shoulder.

"Does that feel better?" she asked, amused.

"Mmm much better," he murmured, nuzzling her neck.

"When was the last time you slept?" she asked.

"That depends, when did you start having nightmares?" He lifted his head off her shoulder to look at her.

Grace's lips thinned and her hackles rose. Sirius was more observant than she thought. She wondered if he knew the frightening truth, but fortunately the mention of nightmares had a sobering effect on both of them. It reminded them of why they were out there in the first place.

"Poor girl," Sirius whispered, gazing out over the lake and shaking his head. "She didn't deserve this."

"None of them did," Grace said, thinking of her family, Rohan and all of the other names on that fatal list. She bit down on her lip.

"Do you think it'll ever stop?"

Sirius tilted his head back as the sun came out again. It was blindingly bright and he squeezed his eyes shut against the glare. Grace wondered if he had even heard him as he leaned back on his hands. She mirrored his movements, letting the rays warm her skin. It hurt her eyes so much that she flung an arm across her face and laid down on the rock. She relished the faint heat that the rock had retained from baking in the sunlight because despite the breaks in the clouds, Grace couldn't stop the chill of fear that seeped through her bones. Sirius still hadn't answered her question and they both knew why.

"Gracie?"

Grace lifted her hand from her eyes, blinking to adjust to a sudden shadow. Sirius was looming over her; his dark shape outlined against the sun. His features blurred together and Grace wondered why she couldn't focus on him.

"You're crying," Sirius observed, touching her cheek. Grace was startled to find that her cheeks were in fact wet. She didn't know when she started crying.

"The sun's hurting my eyes," she lied, embarrassed that she had started to cry in front of him. It wasn't like Sirius hadn't seen her cry before; she had lost her family and almost had to watch Lily die too. But for her, crying was like a wound opening; something ugly that made her vulnerable and exposed that she preferred others didn't see. She didn't want him to see her as weak.

"Close your eyes," he suggested gently.

She did, hoping that the tears would stop. They didn't. But she felt Sirius's lips brush over each of her closed eyelids, just as she had done for him. Unlike her, he did not draw away. She could feel him hovering over her, long after his kiss.

"Sirius." Her eyelids fluttered.

"Eyes closed," he murmured, his fingers ghosting down over her fore head as if he intended to close them himself. Grace shivered at the bare contact of his skin on hers. He cupped her face between both his large calloused hands; the pads of his thumbs sweeping over her cheeks to gather her tears.

He bent over her, close enough so that she could almost taste his breath on her lips and his scent was overpowering. He still smelt fresh like the Quidditch pitch did after it rained and her pulse automatically kicked up as if it had just received a shot of adrenaline. But this was better than flying.

Sirius kissed her gently, catching her off guard. The last kiss they had shared had been fueled by alcohol and anger and passion. It had been rough and fierce and frenzied. There had been swearing involved and fingers that bruised and teeth that bit down just a little too hard. But this kiss was nothing like that. His mouth was so soft against hers that when she parted her lips, he hesitated before slowly deepening the kiss as if he wanted to savor it. Grace's fingers curled lightly around his arms, longing to twist through his thick dark hair, and pull him closer; but she was terrified that if she moved too fast or too suddenly she would break the fragile kiss and the delicacy of this special moment. This wasn't the womanizing, rule breaking, recklessly wild Sirius Black she was used too. It was almost as if she were in a dream, kissing someone else. Grace couldn't dwell on this for long, though, because they broke away for air and the rest of the world seemed to rush in on her.

"What was that for?" she asked, opening her eyes to the sunlight.

"Feel better?" Sirius inquired innocently, brushing some hair back from her forehead.

Grace closed her mouth because she did feel better now. The tears had stopped; he had skillfully distracted her and saved himself the trouble of comforting a sobbing wreck of a girl.

"You've done this before, haven't you?" she asked, smiling despite herself.

"Perhaps," Sirius said, shrugging as he stretched himself out on the rock beside her. It took him a minute before he had himself settled comfortably on his back, shoulder to shoulder with her with his hands behind his head. "But you do feel better now, don't you?" he asked softly.

Something in his voice made Grace look at him and what she saw in his face surprised her. She was oddly unfamiliar with the expression in his eyes, but whatever it was, it was serious and genuine.

"Sirius," she sighed. "Kissing me isn't going to make this pain go away."

"I know," Sirius said slowly as if he was choosing his words carefully, "but it makes me feel better knowing that I at least tried."

Grace mulled over his words, trying not to read into it. Sirius could be so odd at times, but she liked that about him. She would never admit it but his oddities and bouts of insanity made her feel more at ease around him. It made her feel less like some crazy anomaly.

"I just didn't like to see you sad," he confessed. "I didn't mean to-"

"I know," Grace interrupted him before he could apologize for the kiss. She had liked the kiss and it had made her feel better, though it had been only a temporary fix.

Closing her eyes, she rolled over and rested her head on his shoulder. His arm came around her shoulders, tucking her in against his side. Later, she knew they would have to go inside and deal with everyone else who had known Mary and knew Will, but right now she tried to forget about Mary, and Wilkes, and everyone else. The only other thing that existed in that moment was Sirius Black. The thrum of his heart beat lulled her into sleep.

* * *

It had been days since he'd waited for her heart to stop beating. He'd almost been disappointed when it had happened. She put up such a fight that he was almost surprised that she'd died so quickly. Perhaps he was losing his touch. Or maybe…

No, she couldn't have sped up the process, her wand hadn't even been on her. Besides he'd gotten all the information out of her that he could. She'd put up a brave front, but it was clear she was just bluffing.

She kept telling him over and over again that he wouldn't be able to kill Grace. He wouldn't be able to find her, not where she was going. He'd never, never find her, not in a million years. And she'd laughed at him, she'd actually laughed at him when she was dying, telling him that Grace would already be dead if it wasn't for him. That he was actually keeping her alive.

It didn't matter what nonsense the Pewter girl had spouted while she was dying. There was no way Grace Adams was going to run from him. And even if she did, he'd find her. She couldn't run and she couldn't hide. He'd find her eventually. He always did.

**A/N: I wrote this right after I finished I'll Fight For You and I'm so happy I finally got to post it! I have the next two chapters outlined and about halfway done, so hopefully I'll have time today to finish them up this week. Thanks loslote, LilyHeartsJames, Thatstation, and PatronusCharmBabe for reviewing! You guys are amazing! I'm also working on a Lily/James story that'll hopefully be up soon!**


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